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ETHNOGRAPHY 

by 

Loom is Havemeyer, Ph. D. 

and 

Albert Galloway Keller, Ph. D. 



Jyt 



ETHNOGRAPHY 



A Partial and Preliminary Description of the 
Races of Man 

by 
Loomis Havemeyer, Ph. D. 

and 

Albert Galloway Keller, Ph. D. 



New Haven, 1917 

copy z 






Co 



Copyright 1917 

BY 

1/ 
Loomis Havemeyer, Ph. D. 



FEB 10 1.3-17 

©01.4455507^- 



Press of 

The Wilson H. Lee Company, 

New Haven, Conn. 



n^uo 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



BLACK RACE 



AFRICAN BLACKS 



CHAPTER 


PAGE 


1 Bushmen ....... 


1 


2 Hottentots ...... 


8 


3 Bantu-Zulu ... 


15 


4 Bantu-Baganda ...... 


24 


5 Bantu-Congo Peoples ..... 


32 


6 Negroes of the West Central Coast 


43 


7 Masai 


56 



8 Australians 

9 Tasmanians 
10 Melanesians 



AUSTRALASIAN BLACKS 



72 
87 
96 



NEGRITOS 
11 Negritos of the West and East 



108 



12 Tibetans 

13 Yakuts 

14 Eskimos 



YELLOW RACE 



122 
134 
147 



15 Indonesians 

16 Polynesians 

17 Hindus 



162 
181 
189 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 

The following' chapters are a partial collection of 
material for a text book on Ethnography. They are 
privately printed by the Department of Anthropology 
in Yale University for the use of classes in Yale Col- 
lege and in the Sheffield Scientific School. 
January, 1917. 

Loomis Havemeyek. 
Albert G. Keller. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BUSHMEN. 

ENVIRONMENT. The Bushmen live almost entirely along 
the edges of, and in the Kalahari desert of South Africa. This 
region is one of the most barren in the world, and it would 
appear that no human group would ever have come to inhabit 
this waste, except under compulsion. The flora and fauna are 
most meagre and the water supply is to all appearances, prac- 
tically nil. Hence the struggle for existence is very arduous 
and the numbers are small (in the Kalahari about 5,000, of 
whom 3,000 to 3,500 are still of unmixed blood), and widely 
scattered. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. The Bushmen in their physique 
show the result of long privation and of a bitter struggle with 
a hard environment. They are the shortest race of man, aver- 
aging about four feet six inches. The build is thin with the 
limbs lean, almost emaciated. Even the children lack the 
roundness of outline common in most other races although 
they do possess the very pendulous belly. There is almost no 
fat on the body : the skin is leathery, reddish-yellow in color, 
and dry in quality, seeming to fit the emaciated body too 
loosely, and becoming wrinkled at an early age so that it falls 
into strong folds about the belly and at the joints. The head- 
characters are: relative smallness; dolichocephaly ; moderate 
prognathism; nose depressed at the root and turned up at the 
tip ; squareness of the full face (prominent cheek-bones and 
broad under- jaw)-, so that it has been compared in shape to a 
rectangle ; eyes wide-apart, and squinted (this quality and the 
furrowed brow going with life in the dazzling light of the 
desert) ; lips moderately everted. The individual hairs of the 
head are rolled into tight peppercorn knots ; there is very little 
hair on the face or body, but what is there is of a weak stubbly 
nature. In the old, the hair becomes grey, but baldness is sel- 
dom seen. The lumbar vertebrae is so mobile that the people 
can curl up like a dog into a small space. The hands and feet 
are very small. The characteristic negro-odor is absent. They 
have greater physical endurance (e.g. in running), than 
strength, and can go for a long time enduring hunger and 
thirst recovering soon from the effects. Their senses are very 
acute. 

CHARACTER AND HISTORY. The Bushman has truly 
been characterized as the unfortunate child of the moment; 
for he is living entirely from hand to mouth with no thought 
for the morrow. He has been driven back from the fertile 

[1] 



plains by the encroachments of the whites and the stronger 
native tribes. In the early clays of the white habitation of 
South Africa, regular plans were laid and partially carried out 
for the wholesale destruction of the Bushmen, but this cruel 
hunting has now ceased. The natural result of these attacks, 
was to embitter the native peoples against the whites. This 
showed itself in raids made on the out-lying farms where the 
cattle were driven off in large numbers. It is little wonder, 
then, that the hand of the Bushmen is turned against every 
man, for they feel that every man 's hand is against them. 

"They have one ennobling quality, possessed no doubt 
equally by the beasts : a love of freedom, in which the Bushmen 
are superior to all other Africans. Unlike the Hottentot, the 
Bushmen never bowed to the yoke of slavery. In captivity the 
wild impulse of the genuine son of nature towards freedom 
never deserts him. Hence a destructive warfare born of savage 
hatred against all, whether white or black, who wish to limit 
this impulse ; and above all against the herds which cut short 
the borders of his hunting-grounds." 1 

LANGUAGE. The Bushman language is, in general, ag- 
glutinative ; its striking peculiarity is the use of certain click- 
ing sounds, taking the place of consonants and made by sud- 
denly drawing the tongue away from certain parts of the roof, 
gums, or teeth ; of these clicks there are as many as eight 
varieties, very difficult of imitation by a foreigner. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. The Bushmen are entirely a 
hunting people without any thought of cattle raising or agricul- 
ture. So hard are the conditions under which these people are 
living, that there has been developed extreme dexterity and 
cleverness in self-maintenance within range of local pos- 
sibilities. The most vital thing in the Bushman's life is the 
water-supph r ; this is appropriated, often by making a depres- 
sion in the apparently dry bed of a stream and sucking up the 
moisture through reeds ; the women do this, and then store 
what they have been able to get in ostrich-egg shells, which 
are buried in the sand to cool the water and for the sake of 
concealment. There is also a certain bitter melon that grows 
under ground and is located by the hollow sound of the surface 
when tapped ; its juice is often the only liquid, at hand to 
quench thirst. They eat almost every kind of living creature 
which they can collect such as insects, lice, worms, lizards, 
locusts, grasshoppers, frogs, and snakes both poisonous and in- 
noxious. The heads of the former snakes are cut off and then 
the bodies are roasted and eaten with the other small creatures, 
The locusts are dried over a fire, ground to a powder and then 
stored in skin sacks in a dry place to be kept till wanted. When 
the people are hungry they will make the powdered locusts 
into a porridge or mix them with honey and make them into a 

1 Ratzel, " The History of Mankind," Vol. II, p. 268. 

[2] 



sort of cake. The crysalides of white ants are placed with a 
little fat on a flat stone over the fire and when they turn brown 
they are taken off and eaten. The greatest delicacy of all, 
apart from honey, is the foot of the elephant which is cooked 
b}^ burying in a hole in the ground after the ashes have been 
removed. 

But the bulk of the food supply is acquired by the use of 
offensive weapons; either directly or through raids upon cattle- 
raising neighbors. The chief of these weapons is the bow and 
arrow, the former a rude, five-foot stave strung with sinews, 
and the latter between two and three feet long, single- 
feathered, heavy toward the point, and so constructed so as to 
leave its poisoned head in the wound. In hunting or war, the 
small size, keen sight, and noiseless approach of the Bushman 
make him formidable beyond his slight strength; and the lack 
of physical power has likewise been balanced off by the use of 
poison (chiefly derived from snakes or corrupted flesh). The 
ostrich is approached in disguise — the head and shoulders 
covered with the skin and the stuffed head and neck of a 
former victim, and the legs colored white — and with the 
motions of feeding, etc., proper to the quarry, and is readily 
shot at close quarters with small poisoned arrows. Other 
weapons are the spear, only occasionally found, and the knob- 
bed club for throwing or striking. Pitfalls are sometimes used 
and are dug with a stick weighted with a perforated stone — a 
tool employed, of course, in other digging operations. Snares 
are very cleverly made. 

The man usually does the hunting after the larger game. 
Frequently he eats what he wishes while out and leaves the rest 
where it has fallen rather than bring it home to his wife. This 
means that the women often go hungry and are obliged to 
content themselves with the small forms of animal life which 
they can capture either around the camp or on other members 
of the family. 

DWELLINGS. ' ' The Bushman seeks his dwelling in caves 
and clefts of the rock, in sheltered spots beneath over-hanging 
stones, or lies down in dry water courses, or in the deserted pit 
of an ant-bear. It is quite a sign of progress when he bends 
down the boughs of a shrub, and weaves them with other 
boughs and moss into a shelter from the wind, heaping up a 
lair of dried leaves and moss under it." 1 Only in the rarest 
cases does he advance to hut-building, when he finds that there 
is an abundance of game in the neighborhood and he decides 
to settle down for a prolonged stay. The huts are made by 
putting three sticks into the ground and covering them with 
tAvo mats. 

When the Bushmen were asked why they did not make 
stronger and better huts, replied that such huts attached them 

1 Ratzel, " History of Mankind,''' Vol. II, p. 271. 

[3] 



too much to one spot. An additional reason was the fear that 
their enemies might burn them all alive in these huts before 
they could get out; and that there was no way of putting the 
houses aside during the day to prevent their being seen. 

Household gear is (almost lacking, for a Bushman has no 
use for the things which he cannot carry with him. Even 
domestic animals — whenever he has stolen a herd of them as 
he does frequently — appear to him a burden of which he wishes 
soon to be rid. Sharp nosed sheep dogs, which are used in 
hunting, are found once in a while in his possession. Pottery 
is seldom used, probably because of the ostrich eggs which are 
an excellent substitute. 

Fire is obtained by rubbing hard and soft wood together; 
most of the animal food is thrown into the fire for a short time, 
and at least (or at most) warmed. 

When the people sleep they curl themselves up into as small 
a space as possible. In the floors of their huts around the fire 
are many little holes in which the members of the family sleep. 
In cold or rainy weather they do not get up for several days. 

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY. Naturally the Bushmen 
live in small groups, for the environment will not support 
larger ones, even if they are always on the move. On the 
average it takes from 40 to 200 square miles to support one 
person. The parties are, for the most part, family groups, but 
family organization is little known. Acceptance of presents 
constitutes acceptance of their "proposing" suitor, and the 
marriage is ratified by carousing and by return presents, to the 
adherents of the groom. Parental and fraternal incest are for- 
bidden. Because of poverty the prevailing form of marriage is 
monogamous ; but it is a matter of situation rather than of 
principle, and adultery is not severely treated. 

"As the natural consequence of the general mode of life 
among these people, the position of woman is low. On their 
journeys they carry their children, besides the greater part of 
their property; at the halting-place they have to see to fire, 
food, water — -the last often difficult enough to procure, to the 
utensils ; in short to everything not immediately connected 
with the chase. If food runs short, they are. the first to be 
stinted, and get ill-treated as well. A weak, old, or sick woman 
is often left behind Avithout more ado. A bowl of water, a root 
or two, a bit of meat, are placed beside her; and the wild 
beasts soon accomplish her destiny. In the treatment of 
children by their mothers, the animal that is in man equally 
emerges. They are suckled for a long time, but also in the 
very first days of life fed upon chewed roots, meat, and other 
hard articles of diet. They even learn to chew tobacco at an 
early age. The child grows up without cleaning, watching, 
tending, without anything to cover its little head, often quite 
exposed to all weathers ; the boy is early initiated by his 

[41 



father into the mysteries of shooting, 1 racking game, seeking 
honey. The only production that gives the impression of costli- 
ness and elegance is the sunshade of ostrich feathers which 
tender Bushmen mothers plait for their children." 1 

"The Bushmen will kill their children without remorse on 
various occasions, if they are found to be misshapen, when the 
food is scarce, when the father forsakes the mother, if they 
are obliged to tlee from farmers or others, in which case the 
children will be strangled, smothered, cast into the desert or 
buried alive. These latter things are done in order that they 
may not fall into the hands of the enemy. There are in- 
stances of parents throwing their children to a hungry lion 
who stood roaring before the family cave, refusing to depart 
until some peace offering was made. If when a mother dies 
she has any very voung children they are buried alive with 
her." 2 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. Compared to the severity of the 
climate the Bushman's clothing seems very incomplete. He 
wears a triangular skin loincloth and a sort of cloak (kaross), 
which becomes a wrap for the night; the woman's kaross is 
someAvhat more ample, affording shelter to children in arms. 
Sandals of hide or bast are sometimes worn. However, what 
he lacks in clothing he makes up in a coating of dirt all over 
the body. In fact the ashes and grease which cover the whole 
body are like a rind. 

"Finery is scanty and inexpensive. A few rings of brass or 
iron, a string of dark beads, some little sticks strung in a row 
like beads, bits of iron or brass according to taste, decorate 
neck or hair. Trophies of the chase form a more natural adorn- 
ment ; feathers or hares' tails in the hair; teeth, hoofs, horns, 
shells, on the neck and arms. They carry their tobacco in short 
goats' horns, or in the pretty shell of a land-tortoise; while 
boxes of ointment or mysterious amulets are hung around the 
neck and waist. A jackal's tail on a stick fulfills the functions 
of fan and pocket handkerchief." 3 

ART. The Bushmen are very clever in drawing figures of 
men and animals in cra^'on and colors. "The few remains of 
such drawings, which have been preserved on sheltered walls 
of caves, give the idea of higher artistic skill than the in- 
numerable rock-scratchings of the American Indians. These 
designs are partly painted on rocks with the four colors, white, 
black, red, and yellow ochre, partly engraved in soft sand- 
stone, partly chiselled in hard stone. Besides human figures, 
they accurately represent a number of the characteristic ani- 
mals — ostrich, antelope, quagga, baboon, also cattle. The oc- 
currence of horses in these Bushman drawings shows what an 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 275. 

2 G. W. Stow, " Races of South Africa," p. 51. 

3 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 270. 

[51 



impression that animal, first introduced by Europeans, made 
on them. 

' ' The Bushman is like the Hottentot in his turn and capacity 
for music. "Wherever he can snap up an old fiddle from a 
European, or make a rudimentary one for himself out of a 
gourd and two' strings, he extracts a tolerable tone from the 
instrument, and reproduces any pretty airs that he may have 
heard at the mission or in his dances. There is a metallic ring 
in his voice. Besides the gourd-fiddle we find also the gora, 
and a drum, which often consists of a pot with a little water 
in it and a skin stretched over its mouth. The function of this 
music in the Bushman's life is to accompany the dance. The 
modulation of the voices are said to be intimately interwoven 
with the movements of the body. The Bushman dance is a 
gradual and methodical outbreak of licentiousness reaching 
the point of convulsion." 1 

RELIGION. The religious ideas of these people are 
characteristically primitive, and there is probably no concep- 
tion of a higher being. They are best shown, perhaps, in their 
belief concerning the dead. The body is taken out through a 
hole in the wall of the hut, which is then demolished; the 
family deserting the place immediately. "The dead man's 
head is anointed, then he is smoke-dried and laid in the grave 
in an outstretched position. No rule seems to prevail either as 
to the quarter towards which the head points nor as to the 
way in which the arms and legs are laid ; but an old Bushman 
told Campbell that the sun would rise later if dead people 
were not buried with their faces that way. Then they place 
stones like a roof over the corpse so as to prevent the earth 
from falling in upon it, and pile others in an oval form on top. 
Objects of value according to the Bushmen notions are often 
put into the grave ; thus near Colesberg, Fritsch found a tin 
ladle, a cup, and sheep and shears, the last on the breast. The 
wild Bushman put his weapons with the dead man. ' ' 2 

"All Bushmen without exception carry amulets to keep off 
evil spirits, and bring good fortune in their enterprises. One 
tribe will not eat goat, though the goat is the commonest 
domestic animal in their district; others reverence antelopes, 
others again the caterpillar called N'gwa. They try to charm 
their luck in hunting by means of 'bull-roarers.' The custom 
of cutting off joints of the finger alike as a medicinal process, 
a sign of mourning, and an expiation, looks like sacrifice. You 
seldom meet a Bushman whose left-hand fingers have not lost 
some joints. Traces of a belief in a future life are chiefly to 
be seen in the monuments erected to great people when dead. 
Stones are thrown upon chief's graves so long as the memory 
of them lasts." 3 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 274. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 276. 

3 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 276. 

[6] 



There are no gods or greal spirits; but there is a copious 
store of legends having to do with the heavenly bodies, and 
above all with animals. These show not infrequently the results 
of long and keen observation and of high-class imagination. 
The animal-heroes are, characteristically, first the lion, then 
the jackal and hyaena; nearer the Cape the locust is a figure 
of great prominence. The stories are largely of hunting ad- 
venture, and are interspersed with long conversations and 
soliloquies of the beasts; in their endless recountings the Bush- 
men develop a considerable dramatic quality both in gesture 
and tone. It is probable that the animals are, in a vague way, 
the objects of worship ; certain tribes lay a taboo upon certain 
animals, though they may be the commonest of the district. 

REGULATIVE SYSTEM. Definite clan or tribal organiza- 
tion does not appear ; nor i ; s there any societal organization of 
any coherence or lasting quality. Assemblages of families 
sometimes appoint their most respected member "Kaptein, " 
and he holds a position of some influence as a sort of "select- 
man," but this is as far as political integration goes. Classes 
in the population, law other than family precedents, punish- 
ment other than retaliatory violence, in short, social forms other 
than the most primitive and rudimentary, are consistently 
absent. Relations with neighbors are those of unmitigated 
hostility ; it has been said that the only employment of the 
Bushmen is in the line of offensive operations in the chase and 
in war. The latter term must be taken in a restricted sense ; 
the Bushman is a professional cattle-thief, and periodically 
raids the herds of his neighbors, chiefly the Hottentots. This 
leads to such stern reprisal that the Bushman is usually shot at 
sight like a noxious animal. He is against the world and the 
world against him. The numbers of the Bushmen are rapidly 
diminishing ; the women are sometimes carried off and there 
has been some race mixture with Hottentots and Bantu; but 
the genuine wild type of the desert and mountains is preserved 
only in the isolation of a forbidding and nearly impenetrable 
environment. 



[7] 



CHAPTER II. 



HOTTENTOTS. 

ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORY. The Hottentots, who 
were formerly very wide spread in South Africa, and who now 
represent only the debris of a great stock, occupy the western 
part of Cape Colony and the adjoining German territory. They 
have been squeezed almost to death between the encroachments 
of the Europeans advancing from the coast, and the Kaffirs 
from the interior. The result is that the land which they in- 
habit is either of the prairie type or the desert. The inhabi- 
tants of pure 'breed are to be found chiefly in Great Namaqua- 
land. Apparently they were encroached upon and driven 
from a more northerly station into southwest Africa, where 
they were found by the Dutch in the 17th century. Of full 
blood Hottentots, called Namas, there are probably less than 
20,000. It has been reckoned that the Hottentot-Dutch and 
Hottentot-Bantu half-breeds, who are scattered all over south- 
west Africa, number about 180,000. Most of these speak 
Dutch. The half-breeds with white blood are called Bastaards, 
and are very proud of this admixture. The Bastaards are said 
to be the most active and enduring wanderers of the desert, the 
best shots, cleverest hunters, greatest scamps, most arrant 
drunkards and most dangerous criminals. 

The name, Hottentot, was given by the early Dutch settlers 
at the Cape. This word is a Dutch onomatopoetic kind to ex- 
press stammering and was applied because -of the staccato pro- 
nounciation and clicks of the native language. The people 
call themselves "Men of Men" (Khoi-Khoin). 

The Hottentots and the Bushmen appear to be very dis- 
tantly related, although they are dissimilar in language, charac- 
ter, manner of living, and physical nature. "According to a 
Hottentot myth, the first fathers of both lived together — the 
one a hunter, the other, though blind, yet able to distinguish 
animals of the chase from domestic animals. He outwitted the 
hunter, and forced him to go to the mountains, while he him- 
self built his kraal. On the whole, this myth is probably 
right. At the time of the first discovery the Bushmen were 
already a degenerate tribe of hunters crowded in between 
settled nations carrying on stock-raising, with whom for cen- 
turies they had lived in open enmity. They seem to have been 
the original inhabitants of South Africa, and were driven into 
the less fertile mountains by the Hottentots. Both came from 
the north, but the Hottentots, migrating with their herds, had 

[8] 



by a secure sustenance, greater power, and were enabled grad- 
ually to expel the Bushmen from the better hunting-grounds. 

Thus the expelled race sank into want and misery, and in its 
efforts to maintain itself, became involved in quarrels with all 
its neighbors. 

"The opinion which was formerly held, that the Bushmen 
were only degenerate Hottentots forced by poverty to become 
robbers, must be set aside as erroneous; though it is true that 
some scattered Hottentots or Kaffirs have united with the 
Bushmen and have been compelled to lead a similar life." 1 

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS. The 
Hottentots are distantly allied to the Bushmen in physique, 
showing about the same color and quality of skin, although 
they are taller by about eight inches. They are thought by 
some to form an intermediate type between the Bushmen and 
the Bantu. The cranial capacity is small, being about 1365 
c.c, the skull is dolichocephalic, and the face is prognathous. 
The zygomatic arches are very high ; and this characteristic, 
combined with narrowness of the skull and a pointed shape of 
the chin, give to the face the shape of two triangles placed 
base to base, which contrasts with the rectangular shape of the 
Bushmen face. The eyes are deep sunk and wide apart, the 
nose is very broad and flat, with the nostrils opening forward, 
the mouth is large and thick-lipped. The ears are large and 
lobeless ; the hair is short, woolly, and black, and grows gray 
with age but seldom falls. There is little or no beard. The 
characteristic of steatopygy is common, as with the Bushmen. 

The temperament of the Hottentot is leaden, being thus in 
contrast to the Kaffir's high courage and blind passion, and to 
the Bushmen's savage audacity and mecurial disposition. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. "Cattle-breeding is the pivot of 
Hottentot life. At the time of the first contact with Europeans 
the tendency to pastoral life was, owing to the growth of the 
herds, and the competition with the Bushmen who lived by 
the game, strong among many tribes, but was afterwards les- 
sened by quarrels, cattle-lifting, and impoverishment. The 
first settlers could only support themselves by the aid of the 
natives' herds ; while, for the natives, the herds were their only 
wealth, by means of which they could obtain luxuries and 
finery. The man who had nothing, sought service with the richer 
among his people, with the sole object of owning cattle. Cat- 
tle was the money and the gold of these races in pre-European 
times. The tending of the cattle passes to all the inhabitants 
in turn. For quite young lambs and calves there is a shelter 
hut of their own. Milking and the sale of milk take place just 
as with the Negroes, except that the former is the duty of the 

1 G. K. C. Gerland, " Iconographic Encyclopaedia of the Arts and 
Sciences," Vol. I, pp. 292-293. 

[91 



women. Both men and women may drink cows' milk, but 
sheep's milk is allowed to women only." 

"Their diet consisted of the produce of their hunting and 
their cattle, also of vegetables. The women used to procure 
such roots and tubers as the monkeys and pigs were seen to 
grub for most eagerly. But like all Africans, meat was what 
they always sought most passionately; according to Lichten- 
stein, no South African savage can bear entire deprivation of 
meat. At a pinch they singe skins and leather, which they will 
then chew until it is soft. They boil or broil meat, and roast 
roots in the embers ; but everything is devoured half -raw. 
The national dish is meat boiled in blood. ' n Yet they eat only 
those cattle which die a natural death, except on very special 
occasions. 

"The weapons of the Hottentot, at the time of his first in- 
tercourse with Europeans, were like those of the Kaffir. The 
bow took secondary place ; like the Bushman bow, it was made 
of a single stave of strong wood. The arrows had barbed iron 
heads, hammered thin, on a reed shaft 20 inches long. Their 
snake poison was no doubt similarily compounded with that of 
the Bushmen. The quiver was a piece of wood scooped out or 
hollowed by fire, or was made from the hide of ox, eland, rhino- 
ceros, or elephant. Their chief weapon, the javelin or assegai 
— as it is called even by seventeenth-century travellers, before 
we have any reports of the Kaffirs — had a plain blade half a 
foot in length, set on a shaft longer than the height of a man, 
and sharpened at the butt. According to some, it was poisoned. 
The last article in their equipment was the stick for striking* 
or throwing." 2 

HOUSES. "The Hottentots' huts might equally well be 
called tents ; they can be struck and repitched in a few hours. 
The frame consists of supple staves, stuck into the ground in an 
oval, then bent together, and fastened to each other at the top. 
The enclosed space is, in length, about twice a man's height, 
and in breadth less than a third. The aperture is only half the 
height of a man, and a full grown man cannot stand up inside. 
Close mats are laid over the frame, and hides over them; the 
whole being weighted with stones as a safeguard against blasts 
of wind. The mats, the most artistic thing on the premises, are 
manufactured by the Namaquas as follows. The inner bark of 
the mimosa is softened in hot water, and by the united chewing- 
power of the family, and quickly spun into a thread by rolling 
on the naked thighs. Then rushes or grass-stalks are per- 
forated at intervals of 2 inches, and the thread drawn through 
by means of a bone needle, a thorn, or an iron bodkin 2 feet in 
length. Not only are these mats airy in dry warm weather, 



1 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 289. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 286. 



[101 



but they swell with damp, and become so close that they keep 
off the heaviest rainfall. A single pack-ox easily carries the 
semicircular poles of the hut-frame, the mats, and the two or 
three utensils — calabashes, milking pail, pots — with the mis- 
tress of the house and her offspring into the bargain. In the 
middle, opposite the door, the interior of the hut displays a 
hole for the fire — careful housewives always make a hearth of 
clay — and round it as many sleeping-holes as there are inmates. 
The household goods are kept on a frame near the door ; which 
can be closed with skins. Its position is easily changed from 
one side to another, according to the direction of the wind, by 
shifting the mats, but it is originally towards the east. The 
construction of these residences is attended to almost entirely 
by the women. When the modern Hottentot has taken to the 
rectangular mud-hovel, he often keeps his beehive-shaped hut 
for sleeping. They build their villages in a circle, house by 
house, leaving a large wide space in the middle, into which they 
drive their sheep at night." 1 

METALS. "They only know the use of copper for orna- 
ment and finery ; and they must have learnt of themselves to 
smelt it in small quantities. Their mode of smelting iron is 
that used throughout Africa. Their bellows consists of a goat- 
skin with wind-hole and earthenware nozzle. Their smith's 
work, too, is done in the simple way, with stone hammer on a 
stone anvil. Indeed their production of iron even in the sev- 
enteenth century was so limited that the Dutch from the first 
imported iron for arm and foot-rings." 2 

MARRIAGE. "Marriage takes place so early that the ar- 
rangement of it is the parents' affair. As with all South 
Africans it is based on undisguised purchase. It is preceded 
by an application on the part of a relative of the suitor to the 
father of the girl, and to herself. If the answer be favourable, 
his people come the next day to the bride's kraal with the 
oxen ordained for the wedding feast, and there slaughters them 
and arranges the meal." 3 The number of wives taken is lim- 
ited only by the ability to feed them. Consanguine marriage 
is tabooed as far as first cousins. The first-born son is the sole 
heir. 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. 

CLOTHING AND BODY DECORATIONS. "The cloth- 
ing of both sexes formerly consisted of loin-cloth and kaross. 
The men wore a thong around the waist, from which depended 
a piece of jackal's, wild cat's, or other small animal's skin. 
The women wore a triangular cloth, two corners of which tied 
in front ; an apron depended from the knot, and in the case of 
adults was ornamented with fringes, hair, and beads. For- 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 288. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 290. 

3 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 291. 

[11] 



merly, the loin-cloth consisted of a piece of fur with tinkling 
rings of copper appended to it. Besides this, the women wore 
a string, passing several times round about their waists, of 
perforated bits of ostrich egg-shell, and on this girdle tortoise- 
shells, large and small, containing buchu ointment. Girls re- 
ceived all this ceremonially, on attaining maturity. The harass, 
worn by both sexes, was made by preference of sheepskin, or 
the fur of jackals or wild cats; while persons of rank had it 
made of antelope skin. Ladies of better social position wore a 
mosaic of three and four-cornered pieces of gay shell on the 
neck part of it." 1 Trousers and cotton petticoats are now 
worn. A strange survival occurs in that the women still wear 
the loin cloth beneath the petticoat. 

"Both sexes still carry leather pouches hung round their 
necks, containing knife, pipe, tobacco, money ; also little horns, 
tortoise-shells, and other things as finery or as charms. Chil- 
dren have little bones on their belts. But the rings of metal on 
the forearm, of ivory on the upper arm, the polished work of 
which used to arouse the wonder of the Europeans, have 
become very rare. Therewith also the custom of attaching to 
them a leather bag for tobacco, provisions, and the like, has 
fallen into disuse. 

"New-born children are at once smeared with mutton-fat. 
Grown-up people, however, smear their bodies with an ointment 
of grease, bruised &wc/u<-plant, and soot or ochre, drawing lines 
on it with the fingers. This forms an indispensable part of a 
Hottentot's make-up. They smear the hair extra-thickly, no 
doubt as a protection to the head against the heat of the sun. 
It is still usual, even among Christian Namaqua tribes, for the 
women to paint their faces with ruddle." 2 

AMUSEMENT. Dancing is the chief form of amusement. 
It is usually held at the first quarter of the moon and lasts all 
night. Every signal event in life and every change of abode 
is the occasion for a feast and dance. 

RELIGION. The religious system of the Hottentots is not 
highly developed. One of their chief deities is the moon whose 
appearance is the cause of a great celebration (See above). 
They believe in ghosts, with the result that they have various 
ceremonies to ward off the evil influences. If a man goes out 
hunting his wife kindles a fire and watches it carefully so that 
it will not go out. Should it be extinguished, however, the 
man will be unlucky on his expedition. Like many other 
African tribes they have myths and fables which deal with 
animals ; in some of them a keen practical strain is shown. 

SICKNESS. In the time of a severe illness the "first 
thing of all to be done is to call in the witch-doctor, who best 



1 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 285. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. II, pp. 285-286. 



[12] 



knows all the medicaments and their preparation. Above all 
he performs the 'alterative' process, by killing a sheep and 
laying its omentum, powdered with buchu and twisted into a 
cord, upon the sick man's head and shoulders; there it must 
stay until it falls oft". The meat of the sheep is eaten by the 
men or the women, according to the sex of the patient. If the 
illness is persistent, or danger appears to be present, the witch- 
doctor tries to ascertain the prospects of recovery by skinning 
a sheep alive ; if the animal runs after the process, recover 
may be expected, but otherwise, death." 1 

FUNERALS. "At a funeral, when the lamentation was 
over, the son first killed a ram, and sprinkled its blood on the 
corpse, which was then bound in thongs in a squatting attitude, 
and sewn up in mats and skins. Now an outstretched position 
with feet towards the east seems to be usual. On one of the 
long sides of the grave a niche was formed, and this was the 
actual resting-place of the dead, into which he was shut with 
slabs of stone, poles, and branches. Then the earth was shov- 
elled back into the grave, and a heap of stones raised over it 
to keep off the hyenas. Sometimes the body is laid in a cleft 
of the rocks or in a cave. A special aperture is made for tak- 
ing the dead man out of his hut. Besides lamentations, puri- 
fication took place. Moreover, after all these ceremonies, ani- 
mals were solemnly slaughtered by the relatives, and their 
omenta hung round the neck in token of mourning. The whole 
kraal then broke up its huts ; only that of the deceased person 
being left untouched, for fear that he might come back." 2 

REGULATIVE SYSTEM. ' ' The older reports about the po- 
litical institutions of the Hottentots lead to the conclusion that 
they were like those of the other African pastoral peoples. 
Their history gives sufficient evidence to prove how weak their 
cohesion was. A hundred years ago they were not extensive 
nations filling whole provinces with men. Here was a kraal, con- 
taining 100, 150, at most 200 souls; two or three days' journey 
away was another. We find no mention of a prince ruling over 
several kraals. The political organization of the N*amaquas 
to-day is eminently loose and shifting. The Orlams, imigrant 
Hottentots from the Cape, form the larger part of the tribes; 
while the smaller, but internally more adherent, part consists of 
the pure-blooded Namaquas, who used formerly to consider 
themselves the 'royal' race. The lack of any higher political 
organization among the Hottentots is of itself enough to ex- 
plain how the process of race-disintegration could have been 
so quickly accomplished. The sporadic attempts at resistance 
can hardly be called opposition to this ; they were merely iso- 
lated outbreaks of rage in people driven into a corner. We 



1 Ratzel, Vol. II, pp. 290-291. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. II, p. 292. 



[13] 



must not be misled by the tales of the old chroniclers of Cape 
history, who apply in innumerable cases the name of nation 
not only to small communities but even to single kraals. 

"The present political condition of Great Namaqua Land 
looks like a transition from the tribal organization of the orig- 
inal Nama settlers to the domination of an influential dynasty 
of immigrant Bastaards. There are still some independent 
Namaqua tribes, who here and there indulge themselves with a 
little robbery. For example, the German Empire entered into 
separate treaties with the Bastaards of Rehoboth, and with 
Captain Joseph Fredericks of Bethany, who however consented 
only unwillingly to dispense with the support of the chief of 
Beersheba." 1 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, pp. 294-295. 



1341 



CHAPTER ITT. 



BANTU— ZULU. 

EXTENT OF THE BANTU PEOPLES. To the north and 
east of the Bushmen and Hottentots are the Bantu peoples, 
■whose territory includes Central Africa as far as the Sudan. 
To be more exact, the northern limit is a line drawn from the 
mouth of the Rio del Rey on the northern boundar3 r of Came- 
roons on the west coast through the north end of Lake Albert 
and then down the Tana River to Nyanza the east coast. The 
people inhabiting this district belong to one linguistic family 
although they differ materially in physical features. Some of 
the tribes which speak this language belong to the Forest 
Pygmies, others show relationship with the Hottentots, while 
still others cannot be distinguished from the most exaggerated 
types of the black West African negro. 

The theory which accounts for this wide spread of the 
Bantu tongue, states that not more than 3,000 years ago a 
powerful tribe of negroes speaking the Bantu mother-language 
gradually spread into the south from the very heart of Africa. 
The small scattered tribes which occupied this country were 
gradually conquered and absorbed by the victors. The rem- 
nants of the original inhabitants are few, and include such 
people as the Bushmen, Hottentots, and some pygmies in the 
forests of south-west Nile land. If it had not been for the 
arrival of the whites in South Africa the whole region would 
have been rapidly Bantuized, at least as far as the imposition 
of language was concerned. 1 

The name Bantu signifies "Men." It is now proposed to 
gain some conception of this group of peoples, from the des- 
cription of several tribes and groups of tribes. 

ZULU. 

HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENT. The negroes of the 
east coast of Africa were given, by the Arabs who early 
visited that coast, the name "Kaffir," which means "un- 
believer" or "heretic." "There are no general or collective 
national names for these peoples, and the various tribal divi- 
sions are mostly designated by historical or legendary chiefs, 
founders of dynasties or hereditary chieftancies. The term has 
no real ethnological value, for the Kaffirs have no national 
unity. To-day it is used to describe that large family of Bantu 
negroes inhabiting the greater part of the cape, the whole 

1 H. H. Johnston in Encycl. Brit, under Bantu Languages. 

[15] 



Natal and Zuliiland, and the Portuguese dominions on the 
east coast south of the Zambezi." 1 One of the principal 
branches of the Kaffirs are the Zulus, to whom particular the 
name has come to be applied in later years. 

These people occupy the south-east coast of Africa where 
nature is more vigorous and fertile, on account of the presence 
of rainfall, whose lack towards the west is responsible for the 
desert character of that region. In consequence of the more 
favorable natural conditions, including a more temperate cli- 
mate, the southeastern coast and back country is better adapted 
to the growth of civilization. The conditions do not support 
any very high development of agriculture, but are favorable to 
cattle-raising. 

"The traveller from the west, on descending from the 
highlands of the interior through the mountain fringe of the 
Drakenberg to the low country on the east coast, at once feels 
that he is surrounded by a more vigorous and fertile Nature, 
and by a more independent and active population. The bee- 
hive shaped kraals of the Natal Kaffirs, in their square en- 
closure, rise in ever-increasing numbers; their herds are feed- 
ing everywhere in the pasturages, and the stately forms that 
approach to sell the firewood with which the traveller has so 
long had to dispense, or to deal in other goods, complete a 
picture which forms a sharp contrast to everything that comes 
to view of native life and ways in the Cape Colony proper. 
One notices at once that one has here to do with no indolent 
breed. The neat build of their huts, the orderly way in which 
the individual groups are fenced in with wattled work, made a 
favourable impression. 

"Even if the inhabitants go almost naked in warm weather, 
one feels that one is among men who lead their lives on a 
regular footing, among herdsmen who live by secure property 
and their own labour, not by chance and the uncertain bounty 
of Nature. Such is the country of the Zulus, historically the 
greatest, strongest, most permanent power that the Kaffirs 
have till now founded." 2 

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS. The 
Zulus are the "greatest, strongest, most permanent" Kaffir 
power. Physically they are the handsomest and most powerful 
stock. While the Zulu is plainly of the negro type he is not of 
the "animal" type found in several other regions of Central 
Africa. The color is dark brown; the stature is tall and the 
body powerful and well formed. The Zulu has a fresh and 
healthy appearance and differs very greatly from the Bushmen- 
Hottentot stock. Some observers, in enthusiasm over the 
physical proportion of the Zulus have proclaimed them ' ' models 
for sculpture." 

1 Encycl. Brit, under " Kaffirs." 

2 Ratzel, " The History of Mankind," Vol. II, p. 420. 

[16] 



The characteristic features of the negro arc, however, per- 
manent, in ilic broad Hal nose and everted lips. Bui the chiu 
is pointed, the face rather Long, and the eyes Large. The ex- 
pression is in most eases intelligent and alert. The hair is of 
the negro type: short and black, tightly curled and tufted. 
The heard, where there is anything deserving that name, is 
generally thin. 

The Zulu temperament is energetic; "all there'"; and there 
is exhibited a strong will, rapid decision, and great courage. 
However, despite this bravery, the Zulus have never been able 
to bring to a fortunate end a war with the Europeans, however 
much they have outnumbered them. The courage exhibited is 
that of the sudden and reckless attack, but like many native 
peoples, although they have caused the Europeans in South 
Africa a great deal of trouble, the Zulus have not the staying 
power. 

Neighbouring groups of Bantus allied to the Zulus, show de- 
partures from these characteristics: the Bechuanans are of a 
softer and more gentle stamp, while the Matabele are wild and 
savage conquerors, and particularly the scourge of the neigh- 
boring agriculturists. A perusal of the life of Cecil Rhodes, 
after whom the district of Rhodia has been named, throws 
much light upon the characteristics of these tribes. 

LANGUAGE. The Zulu language is of the regular Bantu 
type, which may here be illustrated once and for all. It is 
agglutinated through the extensive use of prefixes. For ex- 
ample, the word for "boy" is um-fana, where the plural is 
aba-fcma. By way of contrast with a language using suffixes it 
might be stated that the Latin vinum bonum would become, by 
the prefix method, um-vin and um-bon. There is a Bantu tribe 
called the Ba^suto. Probably the form Suto is the name of some 
ancient chief. The singular of Ba<-suto, that is, the name of one 
individual of the tribe is Ma-suto ; then the territory occupied 
by the Ba-suto is called Le-suto, and the language spoken is 
Se-suto. Further illustration may be given on the basis of the 
term bono (equals, to see) : eci-bono (things seen), ecl-boniso 
(vision) ; bon-akala (appear). Then eci-bon-akala equals appear- 
ance; and eci-bon-ahalaiso equals revelation. A sentence is 
formed as follows : Bantu (men) b(t-atle (all) ba-moleniio (good) 
ba-hfetsi (the world) ba-ratoa (the beloved). This combination 
means; "in the world, all good men are beloved." 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. "Though cattle-dealing is the 
chief business of the Southeastern Kaffirs (Zulus), agriculture 
is in no way neglected ; their climate and soil permitting it in 
a very comprehensive form * * * * The larger agricul- 
tural operations are performed by the community. At the 
season of planting, which is fixed yearly by the chief, the whole 
field is hoed over; then, with the first rain, follows the sowing 
of Kaffir 'corn' or maize, to the accompaniment of shouts and 

[17] 



singing. Besides this, the two herbs of which the Zulus smoke 
incredible quantities, tobacco and hemp, are widely cultivated. 
Hemp is common enough in a wild state; and tobacco has for 
some years been found in places where villages have stood. 
Watch-towers are constructed in the fields, of timber and 
brushwood ; the whole family lives in the lower room during 
harvest, and a watchman sits above to drive away the grain- 
eating birds. Harvest takes place in January. 

"Thus the Kaffir gets his food about equally from his fields 
and from his herds. The basis of it is sour milk, amasi and 
bruised maize, amah eh, or millet, umbla * * * * Meat is 
eaten alike boiled or roast, and is much relished by the natives. 
According to Gardiner's estimate four or five can manage to 
eat up a whole ox — entrails, sinews, and all, in a day and a half. 
A well-to-do Kaffir always has, at his morning and evening 
meals, over and above his porridge with amasi, vegetables, beer, 
often meat, and in the intervals enjoys plenty of snuff and to- 
bacco, and perhaps dakJca as well." 1 

VILLAGES AND HOUSES. Zulu villages are, as a rule 
small, containing five hundred to a thousand people. The 
paternal house forms the center of the patriarchal family 
group. But they have developed barrack towns, the larger ones 
garrisoned by six hundred to a thousand men. It is said that 
the Zulu king could put fifty thousand men, some say one 
hundred thousand, in the field at short notice. 

"In architecture, considerable differences prevail. Since 
according to his law the land belongs to the tribe, the Kaffir 
has to get the chief's permission to build. Like a true nomad 
he first puts up the cattle-pen, isibaya, by surrounding a circular 
space with a fence or hedge ; or in districts where wood is scarce, 
with a wall of stones or turf. The huts, one apiece for the hus- 
band, for each of his wives, and for each adult member of the 
family, are erected in a semicircle close round the cattle-pen. 
The man gets some 200 pointed laths 12 feet long and sticks 
them in a circle in the ground ; the woman binds them together 
at the top with liana-fibres, fastens reeds or grass over them, 
and spreads the space within with a mixture of earth and cow- 
dung. ' ' 2 

WEAPONS. The Zulus are intensely military and possess 
characteristic weapons in the spear, shield", and club. These 
weapons are used also with great effectiveness in the chase. 
The original weapon was a light throwing javelin; and later 
one of the Zulu kings, Chaka, introduced the assegai by which 
the Zulus have been characterized. This national weapon has 
a double edged steel blade six inches long and about an inch 
wide, set on a shaft over a yard long. The Zulus also bear an 
oval ox-hide shield which covers a man of middle height to 

1 Ratzel, " Mankind," Vol. II, pp. 432-434. 

2 Ratzel, " Mankind," Vol. II, p. 430. 

[18] 



tlic mouth. Since it hinders rapid movement, it is commonly 
thrown away in pursuit or in flight. It is, however, a point of 
honor not to lose the shield. It is really the symbol of the 
warrior, and it is very honorable to make one. This is done 
often by the chiefs. The use of spears and shields is constant, 
for the Zulus are always practicing, in their games and dances 
the arts of war and the chase. 

MARRIAGE. The strong military organization of the 
Zulus vitally influences marriage and the family; especially in 
the past was this the case when the family was entirely sub- 
ordinate to the military organization. The kings, to keep up 
the numbers of their warriors made them marry late — the 
chiefs themselves were not supposed to marry. Consequently 
there w r ere many women for a minority of men no longer fit 
for service ; and so there was a natural development of poly- 
gamy and infanticide. 

Marriage and the family were organized on the patriarchal 
type, as is regular with cattle-raisers ; and the position of 
woman was relatively low. Marriage was regularly by pur- 
chase and had become inveterate in the mores. 

"When the Colonial Government some years ago, formed 
the idea of legislating against this custom, called ukulobola, 
they got into more difficulties than with any other reform. The 
custom is most deeply rooted in the hearts of the women, whose 
sense of their own value increases according to the number of 
cattle for which they are bought. Equally little would a man 
be disposed as a rule to take a wife for nothing ; he would feel 
himself lowered thereby. The bond of wedlock acquires its first 
mutual recognition by means of the purchase. ' n 

Incest is carefully avoided, the union of brother and 
sister, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, being strictly tabooed. 
There is a good deal of unchastity before marriage, but, the 
marriage being once entered into adultery is severely pun- 
ished as an offence against property rights. 

"The wedding ceremony, which takes a similar course 
among all South Kaffirs, consists among the Zulus of the 
ceremonial transference of the bride to the bridegroom's hut, 
escorted by the relations and friends in great numbers. They 
bring two oxen, one to be slaughtered in order to move the 
higher powers to bestow prosperity on the new household, the 
other to form the nucleus of a new herd in the bridegroom's 
pen, denuded by the purchase of his bride. Formerly a grind- 
stone, a broom, and a bowl were handed to the bride,- a sheaf 
of assegais and an axe to the bridegroom, to indicate their 
future callings. Among the Kosas the bride pulls a feather 
from the bridegroom's headdress and sticks it in her own wool. 
Then she seizes a spear, goes solemnly to the cattle kraal, and 
throws it over the fence, so that it remains sticking in the 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, pp. 434-435. 

[19] 



ground. The wedding feast is prepared with one ox of the 
bridegroom 's, which is slaughtered by the senior man of his 
village, and another which he presents to his mother-in-law. 
This is followed, among other tribes, by the washing with 
beads. First the bride, from a calabash containing water and 
beads, sprinkles the hands of the bridegroom and of her 
friends, then he does the same by her and his friends ; then the 
beads are poured out, and everyone snatches at them. ' n Lastly, 
the village seniors even soar to the point of recommending to 
the young couple diligence and good conduct; nor are fine 
words absent from their discourse. 

Defective children are put to death, and there is a good deal 
of general infanticide ; but if the young are allowed to live, 
their relations to their parents are commonly close. The Zulus 
practice the common majority-ceremony when the young are 
inducted into full membership in the group. These include 
circumcision (which has declined in recent time), change of 
name, immersion in a stream, etc. On this occasion instruction 
is given to both boys and girls. 

RELIGIOUS IDEAS. Religion is of about the same type 
throughout Central and South Africa. It is typical animism 
and cultus of the dead. In dealing with the latter, and with 
the spirits, there are sacrifices at the grave, including human 
sacrifices, with attendant cannibalism. The effort is made to 
keep in free touch with the deceased. There is also a high 
development of fetishism and witchcraft. Witch doctors, who 
are also rain makers in the dryer sections, have their usual 
importance among primitive peoples. Zulu life from cradle to 
grave is entangled and confined by the most complicated 
clemency and foolish time-wasting usages." 2 Much is made of 
amulets and other religious devices. 

In dealing with the spirits, the Zulus show the usual primi- 
tive daimonism. Though they endeavor to keep on good terms 
with the dead they have a number of methods of avoidance 
and exorcism. They recognize the spirit of heaven, and among 
them the functions of creation and of great supernatural power 
are assigned to the ''old old one" (Unlmlimkullu). It is 
Unkulunkullu not Itango the supreme spirit who created man. 
On the occasion of an earthquake, threatening gestures are 
made to the sky and there are ceremonies in connection with 
the moon. There is a considerable amount of worship of trees 
and animals which verges over into totem,ism ; and there is an 
extensive mythology along all these lines as is common among 
primitive peoples and among Africans in particular. 

It is impossible to go into the details of religious observ- 
ances, but it is possible to say that those of the Zulus exemplify 
the principles laid down by Tylor, Chapters 14 and 15, and by 
Spencer, Volume I, part 1, of the "Principles of Sociology." 

1 Ratzel, " Mankind," Vol. II, pp. 435-436. 

2 Ratzel, " Mankind," Vol. II, p. 369. 

[20] 



"Were it not," says one observer, "for the suspicion in 
native character and customs, and the misery flowing from it, 
the Bantu-Kaffirs would be happy barbarians, especially Zulus 
whose good nature, humor, sociability, hospitality, mildness, 
and honesty are striking characteristics." It might be queried 
whether the Zulus or any other savage peoples are any more 
"unhappy" because they are immersed in their own set of 
mores, than are civilized observers, for whom life amidst these 
mores seems unattractive. 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. The Zulu government 
is a limited despotism. The king has beside him two indunas, 
one a sort a minister and the other a commander-in-chief. The 
government appears, therefore, to be a sort of triumvirate. The 
king has no power to declare war, to pronounce capital sen- 
tence, or to divide land, without the approval of the indunas. 

"Yet a whole list of privileges belong to the king, showing 
that he holds, in regard to the mass of the people, the position 
of a patriarchal tribal chieftain. His is the right of ownership 
over all the land and all the property of the people; there is no 
personal property in land, only certain rights affecting the 
situation of the villages and pastures. Yet the king has the 
usufruct of a number of villages, just as the higher indunas 
usually own one or more. Similarly, the king has a power of 
disposal, though often limited, over the lives and the time of 
his people. Confiscated goods form a main source of a Kaffir 
chief's revenue, in addition to more or less voluntary presents. 
These are especially plentiful at a declaration of manhood. 
No subject may receive a present without the king's permission. 
Yet he is in truth no lazy oriental despot, but has a long list 
of duties, by no means trivial, to perform. As supreme war 
lord he has to feed, equip, and when necessary pay his soldiers, 
to encourage and to punish them. He superintends his herds, 
which are in so far state property that the army is victualled 
on the meat of them, and its shields are cut from their 
skins." 1 

The basis of the Zulu state is a military constitution. The 
army which they possess is one of the most complete and ef- 
ficient and permanent organizations of any Negro state. The 
youths are trained from their earliest years in military matters ; 
in fact the kraals are really great camps where the men and 
boys are divided into certain military categories. At one time 
they could have put between 50,000 and 100,000 men into the 
field, half of whom were kept, even during times of peace, on a 
war footing. 

War is not a series of mock battles, as is the case with so 

many of the savage peoples, but rather a very bloody affair 

where frequently an entire army will be wiped out. Even the 

Europeans have had much difficulty with these daring people, 

1 Ratzel, " Mankind," Vol. II, p. 437. 

[21] 



although in the end the more civilized race has always con- 
quered. 

The Zulu jurisprudence is cruel, but relatively advanced; 
there are a good many points of agreement between the Zulu 
system and that of the civilized peoples, and it is here that the 
civilized influence can, in consequence, get a hold. However, 
this influence is less far reaching than is sometimes thought. 
In 1872 Cetewego was persuaded not to execute without a trial, 
but this never went into effect, for it struck at the very root- 
of the monarchy. Much time and trouble was spent in arriving 
at what they considered justice. The judges were the under- 
chiefs and the king, the finding of the latter being final. Under 
the King Chaka all theft was punished by death ; also sneezing 
and clearing the throat in the king's presence, and the exhibi- 
tion of dry eyes at the death of a member of the royal house. 
For lighter offences there were fines in cattle. Theft came to 
be atoned for by a restitution of from two to ten times the 
amount stolen; and under was paid for in cattle (five or six 
head), if the relatives agreed. But a great variety of capital 
punishments persist including hanging, twisting the neck, 
throttling, and impaling. The bodies of those executed are left 
to the wild beasts. 

"Their judicial procedure recognizes an oath by deceased 
parents or chiefs, or by the living king, and treats precedents 
with respect. The proceedings run into oratorical breadth. A 
man who purposes to bring a complaint against another as- 
sembles his friends or neighbours, who go with him, armed, to 
the hut, or village of the defendant, sit down there in a con- 
spicuous place, and await the effect of their presence. Presently 
the grown men of the neighbourhood or village collect over 
against them, and Avait in similar silence. One from among 
them now calls to the, as a rule, unwelcome visitors, 'tell us the 
news.' The spokesman gives a precise exposition of the com- 
plaint ; his own companions interrupt him with a host of ad- 
ditions and emendations, and the opposite party with endless 
cross-questioning. At first, however, the proceedings do not 
get beyond this. By next day the accused parties have brought 
up men who are known as practised debaters. These begin to 
represent their view of the case, and the complainants have to 
bring theirs forward afresh. Now the effort is made to relate 
each individual point with the utmost obstinacy and subtlety. 
When a speaker is tired another steps in, and goes again over 
the well-laboured field with the plough of fresh arguments. But 
if all pleas and counter-pleas on both sides are exhausted, the 
complainants withdraw, and both parties consider the ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of their position. If one feels that 
it cannot maintain its case, it starts with the offer of the small- 
est possible compensation. If no decision is arrived at, a sum- 
mons from the complainants to the umpakaU of the neighbouring 

[22] 



district follows. In his presence the whole dispute is now once 
more gone through at length." 1 Frequently this goes on for a 
week or more until finally the case has been reviewed by every- 
one of importance. The chief at last gives a decision which has 
to be lived up to. 

Trespasses .against the king are punished with savage 
severity. Frequently for such a trespass a man's whole house 
and goods might be "eaten up." 

1 Ratzel, Vol. II, pp. 444-445. 



[23] 



CHAPTER IV. 



BANTU— BAGANDA 

ENVIRONMENT. The Baganda occupy a portion of the 
so-called Uganda Protectorate around Lake Victoria Nyanza. 
This name, Uganda, is really incorrect, for it comes from the 
native name Buganda in which the Bu was pronounced U by 
the early explorers. This region is one of the most productive 
in Africa, possessing a tropical climate for the most part, and 
showing the usual luxuriance of vegetation and of animal life 
characteristic of that climate. The topography is varied, hav- 
ing lofty plateaus, snow-capped mountains, vast swamps, dense 
forests, and regions of desolate aridity. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. 

HISTORY. The Baganda show no distinct physical type, 
but represent the "West African Type." They are big men, 
tall, loose-limbed, muscular, clumsy — showing but little of the 
grace and suppleness of the Zulus. The type is typically 
negroid, although the men show a development of the beard 
beyond the ordinary. The expression is mild and agreeable, 
and the disposition is polite and artistic. Johnston calls them 
the "Japanese of Central Africa." 

This region has shown a tremendous decrease in population, 
from four million to one million (1901). There was an appal- 
ling blood-shed between 1860 and 1898, during the wars and 
raids with the Unyoro and in the civil wars. 

"But another cause seems to have been the exhaustion of 
men and women by premature debauchery. From some cause 
or another the women of Uganda have become very poor 
breeders. If a woman has more than one child she is looked, 
upon as quite remarkable, and is given a special honorific tith 
If ever a race needed a puritan revival to save it from extinc- 
tion, it is the Baganda. ' n 

Sex disease has ravaged the population; its nature "is not 
understood, for mothers think it is due to eating salt during 
pregnancy, and women are beaten if their children die of it. 

The Baganda are subject to various diseases, among them 
malarial fever — to which, however, they seem susceptible only 
if they leave their own country. This same peculiar condition 
applies in the case of dysentery. Smallpox has had its ravages, 
and chickenpox and mumps make a great deal of trouble. A 
peculiar ethnic disease is yaws which commences with ulcers on 
the feet and spreads over the body. Some leprosy is found 
but bubonic plague is more feared. Phthisis is extremely rare, 

1 Johnston, H. H., " Uganda Protectorate," Vol. II, p. 642. 

[24] 



but skin diseases and parasites of all kinds arc common. Dys- 
pepsia from, eating beyond the powers of their strong diges- 
tions, is not uncommon. The worst diseases next to syphilis is 
the sleeping-sickness which is brought on by the bite of the 
tsetse fly, and is said to be invariably fatal. 

There is an enormous infant death rate, but the population, 
it is said, are making the endeavor to be sanitary — except as to 
their persons. They attempt to keep their houses clean and 
the surrounding's of their houses very clean. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. The chief industries of the Ba- 
ganda are agriculture and cattle-raising. As domesticated 
animals they keep the ox, goat, sheep, fowls, and dogs, although 
they never of themselves made any progress, to speak of, in 
domestication. They use milk for food, having been taught "by 
Europeans, but not because ef any original fondness for the 
liquid. Cattle-keeping has never taken the hold on these peo- 
ple that it has on the people of less distinctly negro character 
to the east and to the west. 

Although the people raise the sweet potato, maize, and to- 
bacco yet their greatest product is the banana or plantains. 
The people have large groves of these trees which they tend 
very carefully by cutting out all the underbrush. There are 
thirty-one different kinds cultivated in Uganda. 

"As regards the food of these people, they are fond of meat 
when they can get it, either by killing goats, sheep, cattle, or 
wild animals. Meat is sometimes cooked in water with red 
pepper and the spicy grains of the amomum, or it is grilled over 
the fire on a rough gridiron. The common practice is to run 
lumps of flesh onto wooden spits and stick them up in a slant- 
ing position over the fire. ' n Fish enters largely into the diet of 
these people. Locusts are eaten roasted after the wings have 
been pulled off, and white ants are considered quite a delicacy, 
^ut the staple food is the banana. This is prepared by boiling 
'ot of them together in a solid mass. This is placed in the 
cen - of the family circle, each one helps himself to a small 
amou * w ich he rolls into a ball, dips into gravy, and then 
eats. It is considered almost a sin to drop any of this gravy 
when the balls are removed to the mouth. Children are se- 
verely reprimanded for such an impropriety. 

The chief drink is a sweet beer made from the juice of the 
banana. This is very heady and the Baganda are frequently 
tipsy from its use but not stupified or frantic. They also chew 
the pulp around the coffee berry but they have no beverage 
from this plant. They raise excellent tobacco with little care, 
and both sexes smoke it in clay pipes. The smoking of hemp 
so infuriates them that the practice has been prohibited by 
native law. 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 671. 

[25] 



The status of their agriculture is not remarkable ; in com- 
mon with other Central Africans they do not have the plough. 
Though their tobacco grows rankly on the dung hills, they have 
no idea of manuring, but burn the undergrowth and dig the 
ashes into the soil thus preceding in the wastefulness many of 
the ancient "brand tillage." 

The Baganda native weapons are the spear and the shield, 
the latter a pointed oval bent on the metal. They do not use 
the bow and arrow or swords. In hunting they were formerly 
very adroit and were also skilful in lake fishing, chiefly with 
weirs. 

HOUSES, VILLAGES. The typical house in Uganda is a 
perfect circle with two door-ways, one opposite the other. 
Outside, the conical roof is prolonged, so that it covers the 
porch. This roof is a heavy thatch, sometimes a foot in thick- 
ness, made of fine long grass which over the front of the house 
and over the porch is shaved off with sharp knives to a smooth 
edge. ' ' This gives the house a very neat aspect, and is a great 
improvement on the untidy, sweeping straws which usually 
terminate an African's thatch. The interior of the house and 
the outer walls of the porch and the front veranda are most 
neatly covered with cane-work. This is made of long stalks of 
the elephant grass packed closely together in an upright posi- 
tion, and bound by traverse bands of bast. This cane-work 
is almost a specialty of the Baganda, and with it they clothe 
unsightly poles, which then become glistening columns of pale 
gold * * * * . 

"A large house may contain, besides the central fireplace 
(generally a raised dais of hard clay on which stand the three 
big round stones which compose the African's grate), from one 
to five sleeping berths, usually beds of raised clay partially 
surrounded by screens. Curiously enough, in many of the 
houses, even of the better class, there is a partition on the left of 
the interior from the principal entrance which serves as an en- 
closure for cattle, one or more milch cows being kept there 
with their calves. Some of these cows are extremely tame, and 
walk in and out of the houses with great care and deftness, 
never upsetting or injuring the frail screens through which 
they have to pass. It may be supposed that these tame cows 
introduce a certain amount of dirt and smell into the house ; 
but as regards cleanly habits they seem to be as well trained as 
a domestic dog or cat. 

"At the back of the principal dwelling-house there are 
smaller and less neatly built huts which serve as cooking 
places, and sometimes as separate dwellings for supernumerary 
women or children, and attached to every establishment is a 
privy. In the courtyard which contains the principal dwelling, 
there may still be seen a small fetish hut near the house and 

[26] 



close to the gateway Leading into the courtyard. Every 
Uganda house of importance has attached to it a series of 
neatly kept courtyards surrounded by tall fences of plaited 
reeds. In visiting a chief one may pass through four or five of 
these empty courtyards, in which followers of the chief stand 
or squat under shady trees. Any really big chief or the king 
of Uganda would have in one of these courtyards a band of 
music, a number of men with drums, fifes, and horn trumpets, 
who would greet the arrival of distinguished strangers by 
striking up some melody." 1 

"The Uganda town is a series of villa residences surrounded 
by luxuriant gardens. Occasionally there is an open square 
formed by the meeting of two broad roadways, and this may be 
the site of a market or a place of reunion for the people. Nar- 
row paths may circulate between the huts of peasants or as by- 
ways, but as a rule the Muganda prefers to make roads as those 
in vogue in civilized countries at the present day. The public 
ways are kept fairly free from the growth of vegetation, but 
no attempt is made, of course, to metal their surface, and con- 
sequently the heavy rains cut deeply into their clay soil, so 
that the roads in their present condition are quite unsuited to 
wheeled traffic. 

ROADS. "The Uganda road is like the old Roman road. 
It aims, or attempts to aim, straight at its destination, per- 
fectly regardless of ups and downs. The natives never dream 
of negotiating a hill by taking the road round it by a gentle 
gradient. On the contrary, it always seems to the wearied 
traveller that the person who laid out the road looked round 
the horizon for the highest point and made straight for it by 
the steepest ascent. As a matter of fact, the roads are carried 
with tolerable correctness from point to point along the short- 
est route. It is when the Baganda come to one of their many 
thousand marshes that they show both perseverance and 
skill." 2 

"Across these marshes the Baganda build causeways, 
which, though perhaps not sufficiently strong for heavj^ 
wheeled traffic, are generally quite solid enough for foot pas- 
sengers and people on horseback. The causeway is usually 
made Iby driving poles into the marsh and building along these 
two rows of piles a coarse basketwork of withes and canes. 
Between these walls of basketwork are thrown down a quantity 
of papyrus stalks and branches of trees. Poles are fastened 
at short intervals above this groundwork of indiscriminate 
vegetation, and keep the opposite walls of basketwork from 
falling in. An immense quantity of mud and sand is then 
thrown down along the causeway, and gradually built up to a 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 652-656. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 656-657. 

[27] 



high, hard road some six feet above the surface of the marsh. 
At intervals tunnels are made in the basketwork as rough 
drains through which the slowly percolating water of these 
choked rivers may find its way. The weakness of this plan 
seems to lie in the perishable nature of the foundations. The 
immense quantity of papyrus leaves and branches which are 
thrown down at the bottom of the causeway rot by degrees and 
shrink in volume. This causes holes to form in between the 
poles. At the same time, one has only to travel in countries 
like Uganda outside the limits of Uganda civilization to realize 
what a boon these dry roads are across the interminable 
marshes. ' ?1 

BOATS. "The Uganda canoe, like the Uganda house and 
road is a thing peculiar to Uganda. * * * The foundations 
of the boat consist of a keel made from the long, slender stem 
of a tree, which may be as much as fifty feet long. The keel is 
straightened and slightly warped, so that it presents a convex 
aspect to the water. This long tree-trunk is a semicircular hol- 
low, the interior having been burnt out with fire, aided by the 
chipping of axes, and it is of sufficient girth to form by its 
breadth the bottom of the canoe." 2 Planks are fixed to the 
side to form the gunwale. The boats are propelled entirely by 
paddles although the people know the use of sails. 

MARRIAGE. ' ' With regard to marriage, the peasantry, or 
'Bakopi,' follow this procedure: A man has generally ascer- 
tained that his advances will be favorably received before he 
makes any definite move. If he meets the girl, he asks per- 
mission to speak to her elder brother or uncle, and if she con- 
sents the peasant buys two gourds full of native beer, and re- 
pairs to her father's house. The brother or male relative 
meets him at the entrance to the enclosure that surrounds the 
house, takes the beer, and conducts the suitor to the girl's 
father. As soon as the beer is disposed of, the father mentions 
certain articles that he should like as a present, possibly 10,000 
kauri shells, a goat, a bundle of salt, and a few strips of bark- 
cloth. The suitor then retires and does the best he can to 
obtain the quantity of each article mentioned. If he is a rich 
man, he will not take long, but in any case he must not return 
for the bride before three days. This is the period universally 
allowed for making her ready — that is, shaving her hair and 
anointing her all over with oil. After a lapse of an interval 
ranging from three days to a month and a half, the suitor re- 
turns with the shells and other things, probably costing, all 
told, some 18S. to 20S. These things are given to the father of 
the girl. At the same time, the suitor must not have forgotten 
to bring a small calabash of beer for the bride 's sister. When 



1 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 658. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 659. 



[28] 



these things are handed over, a party is formed at the father's 
house and all proceed to the bridegroom's house, beating drums 
and singing. The afternoon, evening, and night are spent in 
dancing and drinking beer. In the morning the party sepa- 
rates, and the ceremony is finished, the bride remaining with 
her husband. ' n 

Marriage between first cousins is tabooed and the curious 
practice of avoidance of the mother-in-law exists. She must 
not go into her daughter's house or speak to her son-in-law, 
and if there is an accidental meeting with him both parties 
must turn aside. When visiting her daughter the mother-in- 
law stays twenty yards away from the hut and the daughter 
comes out. "If the son-in-laAV is indoors, and in view from 
outside, the mother-in-law may shout * * * 'How dost 
thou?' And the son-in-law may answer her from inside the 
hut, but it would be a gross breach of etiquette either to carry 
the conversation further, or for the mother-in-law to look at 
the door, or her son-in-law to glance at her from within the 
hut," 2 

Adultery was once punished by "chopping up alive to- 
gether;" now by fines. The man may be whipped, but a 
woman never; and the wife is not discarded. At the time of 
birth, the wife is not delivered in her husband's house, but in 
a shed or in a house borrowed from a friend. Her mother and 
other women attend her ; and it is a breach of etiquette for her 
husband to visit her during the four days absence. The pa- 
ternal grandfather names the child, whose standing depends 
little, if anything, on the rank of the mother. The Baganda 
women may not eat fowls or mutton or eggs after they are 
married. Inheritance is by election rather than by prescribed 
right ; but the widows of the deceased do not become the wives 
of the heir. 

The Baganda are divided into twenty-nine clans, and mar- 
riage inside the clan is common. The clan has a sort of totem 
called muziro signifying "something I avoid for medical or 
other reasons." 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. The Baganda practice no body 
mutilations such as circumcision, scarring, tattoohfg, ear-pierc- 
ing, or knocking out of teeth, but they wear iron, copper, lead, 
or ivory bracelets or necklaces of the same materials. They do 
not take much trouble with the hair. "This is very abundant 
in growth, Ibut they generally cut it short. There are certain 
occasions, however, on which the hair is allowed to grow. A 
widow is expected to leave her hair at least two months uncut 
after the death of her husband. She may even let the growth 
of the hair extend uninterruptedly for five or six months, if she 



1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 687-C 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 688. 



[29] 



wishes to show that her sorrow is intense. It is sometimes 
noticed that there is a circular bare patch on a man's head 
where the hair has been shaved, almost like a tonsure. The ex- 
planation of this is that the tonsured individual is subject to 
fever or has frequent headaches. He therefore keeps a portion 
of his head shaved, so that it may be readily scarified and 
cupped." 1 

There is a strong feeling for what they call decency; the 
exposure of the legs in the king's presence calls down a fine. 
However, the valets to King M-utasa were young women who 
were entirely unclad. 

The clothing of all was formerly made of bark-cloth, and 
it is still etiquette to wear it at court. The Muganda winds a 
strip of it around his hips and between his legs, even though he 
wears trousers over it. There is a growing partiality for white 
cloth garments which are constantly washed. These extend 
from the neck to the ankles. 

The Baganda are very fond of the simple primitive music 
which they know how to make. One of their instruments is 
the flute which is made from hollow reeds or sections of bam- 
boo. The drum is a hollow tree trunk covered with lizard skin. 

"The harp of the Baganda is interesting because its identical 
form is repeated in the paintings of ancient Egypt, where the 
instrument must have had its origin, reaching Uganda by way 
of the Nile, or by the roundabout route which ancient trade 
followed from Egypt to Somaliland and from Somaliland to 
Uganda. This type of Egyptian harp may also be noticed in 
the possession of the Sudan tribes along the Congo watershed 
and in the vicinity of the Niger, and I am not sure but what it 
does not turn up again in West Africa." 2 

Still another instrument resembles closely the civilized xylo- 
phone and is made from hollow pieces of wood of different 
lengths fastened cross-wise to two banana stalks. 

RELIGION. Theoretically the Baganda are all Christians, 
but the old forms of daimonism and ancestor-worship persist. 
There are numerous spirits associated with lightning, rain and 
other phenomena. Among the Pre-Christian priests, as else- 
where in the world, the cross was a mystic symbol. 

The dead are washed with the pulp of banana stems, and 
placed on a frame in the hut. They are buried before the hut 
door, and a small structure is reared beside the grave for the 
purpose of mourning — which ends after one month. Formerly, 
living persons were buried with the dead to be followers to the 
spirit world ; but this practice has fallen into disuse. 

The Baganda distinguish two varieties of doctors : first, 
those who have a practical knowledge of healing herbs, etc.; 



1 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 647. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 665. 



[30] 



second, the regular sha who practice auto-hypnosis and mes- 
merism. In former times the doctors were confused -with and 
undifferentiated from the priests. Among the primitive thera- 
peutic devices are cupping (which is frequently nothing but 
the sucking of the spot where pain is located), massage, and the 
sweat bath. 

The Baganda have an extensive mythology, and many 
stories about animals and spirits, of the typically African type. 
But Christianity is said to have been established pretty 
strongly, and the religious system to be changing and pro- 
gressive. 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. The government is the 
regular central African despotism, and has been very bloody. 
There is great respect for law and order ; in fact the people are 
somewhat slavish. It is said that this regime engenders polite- 
ness, and that the Baganda are the politest race in Africa. If 
it is true that the freest nation is the rudest, then, perhaps, the 
politeness of the Baganda is an indication of their oppression 
at the hands of their rulers. 



131] 



CHAPTER V. 



BANTU— €ONGO PEOPLES. 

It is not to be understood that all the rest of the Bantus are 
on so high a plane as the Zulu and Baganda. In the center and 
west of Africa they are much less developed in culture. There is 
no great difference in physique, but the distinctions are like in the 
grade of civilization attained. We shall now briefly survey the 
main features of the central and west African societies. 

These peoples occupy the valley of the Congo and while the 
different tribes possess many distinctive local customs yet the 
general type of civilization is the same throughout. The popu- 
lation of this region is variously estimated at from 14,000,000 to 
30,000,000. 

ENVIRONMENT. The Congo is the largest river of Africa 
and is only exceeded in size, among the rivers of the world, by 
the Amazon. This enormous river has a length of 3,000 miles, a 
width, in places, of 8 miles, and a drainage area of 1,425,000 square 
miles. This huge territory includes the equatorial basin of central 
Africa and much of the surrounding plateaus. 

Situated as it is in the tropics, the valley of the Congo is made 
up chiefly of dense jungle-like primeval forests, but there is some 
prairie or grass land. The climate is equatorial, the rainfall 
copious, and the vegetation luxuriant to the point of impenetra- 
bility. Swamps, almost impassable, cover large areas along the 
river and through the interior of the country. 

PHYSIQUE. The physique of the Congo peoples is of the 
negro type (see Ch. on negro) varying somewhat, but on the whole 
not so good as that of the Zulu and the Baganda. 

CHARACTER AND ABILITY. "The native can love and he 
can hate; but he is neither a good lover nor a strong hater. His 
affections are neither steady nor permanent. He will, however, 
remember a wrong committed against him much longer than a 
good deed done to help him. He is moved more by fear of pain, 
by loss of material profit, and by public opinion than swayed by 
principles and arguments. He will float with the stream rather 
than continually struggle against it; but at the same time he can 
obstinately and doggedly follow a course that will result in physical 
pain, financial loss, and ridicule if he is once persuaded that his 
ultimate interests lie in that direction. 

"He is not lacking in gratitude, but he is afraid of displaying 
it lest a favour be asked of him in return. When you visit him he 
will remind you of the fact that you mended his broken leg or 
cured his disease, not to make it the basis of a generous act towards 
you, but rather as a plea to procure something extra out of you 
by awakening your further interest in him. 

[321 



"In some districts yon will find he is more a liar than a thief, 
and if yon investigate yon will discover that the fines imposed 
for thieving are such as to deter him from following his inclination 
to steal. In other districts, where the native laws are more lax, 
he will excel both in thieving and lying, but he will readily admit 
they are vices worthy of stringent punishment, and will express 
his regret that the thief stole either from yon or from himself, 
and at the same time he will be doing his best to rob you." 1 

"He is prouder than Lucifer is reputed to be, and will resent 
the smallest slight put upon his so-called dignity. In a fit of 
overweening vanity he will sacrifice everything he possesses, and 
destroy all his future prospects to satisfy the pride of the moment. 
His family may be insignificant, his town paltry, himself small 
and dirty, but touch his pride and he will act as though he were 
un grand seigneur. He himself must be the judge of what hurts 
his pride, not you. He has His own code of honour and etiquette, 
difficult at times for you to understand, hence you wonder at 
some of the exhibitions of his pride. 

"His memory is well trained, and his powers of observation 
keen and minute; his ability to adapt himself to his surroundings 
is wonderful, and imitative faculties are remarkable; but he lacks 
power of mental concentration and logical thought. His physical 
powers are highly developed — he will carry a load, from 70 lbs. 
to 80 lbs., up and down hill and across broken country, or paddle 
a heavy canoe hour after hour, without exhibiting much fatigue; 
but he cannot, or will not, follow a line of thought, metaphorically 
speaking, for twenty yards. His reasoning and reflective faculties 
are stunted, undeveloped, for they have been exercised upon 
nothing more profound than the very alphabet of existence. He 
knows that two and two make four — that certain results follow 
certain causes, but that a series of causes will produce a series of 
results complicated and wide-spreading in their effect he cannot 
grasp. He has no power of deduction, and little or no faculty for 
producing a well-developed plot or involved plan." 2 

"He has a wonderful power of imitation, but he lacks invention 
and initiative; but this lack is undoubtedly due to suppression 
of the inventive faculty. For generations it has been the custom 
to charge with witchcraft anyone who has commenced a new in- 
dustry or discovered a new article of barter. The making of 
anything out of the ordinary has brought on the maker a charge 
of witchcraft that again and again has resulted in death by the 
ordeal. To know more than others, to be more skilful than others, 
more energetic, more acute in business, more smart in dress, has 
often caused a charge of witchcraft and death. Therefore, the 
native to save his life and live in peace has smothered his inventive 
faculty, and all spirit of enterprise has been driven out of him." 3 

1 Weeks, " Among the Congo Cannibals," pp. 175-176. 

2 Weeks, pp. 176-177. 

3 Weeks, pp. 177-178. 

[33] 



SELF-MAINTENANCE. These people may be roughly di- 
vided into three groups: plain, forest, and riverine tribes. With 
the exception of a very few along the river, all are agriculturists. 
The chief things raised are the banana, plantains, sweet potatoes 
and the cassava root, which, when soaked, pounded, rolled in 
banana leaves and boiled, forms the staple food of most of the 
Congo tribes. They also cultivate maize, seseine and tobacco, 
but these are by no means so wide spread or important as the 
above mentioned products. 

This work of agriculture is carried on largely by the women. 
Little girls are taken out at an early age to the farms, which are 
situated on the outskirts of the villages, and there taught how to 
plant, hoe and gather the crops. They are instructed in the best 
sort of soil to use, and when it is unprofitable to plant an old farm, 
and better to start a new one. 

The domesticated animals are the goats, sheep and poultry; 
the latter being fairly common amongst all of these peoples. 
But the people do not depend entirely upon their own animals 
for meat. On the Lower Congo such animals as the antelopes, 
bush-pigs, palm-rats, gazelles, etc., and on the upper branches of 
the river, the hippopotami, elephants and lions are hunted. 

One favorite method of hunting on the plains is to set the 
grass on fire once a year, and, as the animals rush by in terror, 
to kill them. The result of this wholesale slaughter has been that 
the amount of game has greatly decreased. Where the larger 
game is hunted, before an expedition takes place the medicine- 
man is called in to perform certain rites so that the hunt might 
be successful. It is thought that those spirits of the dead who 
inhabit the forests have the power to turn the animals aside.from 
the traps and hence the medicine-man is expected to prevent this 
catastrophy. The natives are not very good trackers but depend 
more on the animals running into the trap or noose than in hunting 
them down and then killing them. 

"For hippopotami, elephants and antelopes spring traps are 
placed across their tracks. These traps are made by putting two 
stout uprights about four feet apart, one on either side of the 
track; then a stout cross-piece is tied at about twelve feet from 
the ground. To the middle of this cross-piece and right over the 
track is fixed a heavy log of wood; and into the downward end 
of the log is placed a strong, sharp, heavy spear or prong. The 
log is so arranged that when the string which stretches across the 
path is touched by the passing animal, down comes the log, and 
four times out of six the spear enters the body of the beast. I 
once saw the body of a man who, while running in the forest, had 
inadvertently touched the spring of one of these traps. The spear 
caught him in the back of the neck, passed through his body, and 
came out between his legs. Such traps were called mbonga. 
Occasionally pit traps are made, but it is seldom that anything 
is found in them." 1 

1 Weeks, p. 234. 

[34] 



Those pit traps have a1 the bottom of them sharpened sticks 
and iron prongs. Over the hole branches and leaves arc placed, 
and the rapid growth of the jungle soon makes these invisible. 
When elephants are being hunted the holes are made narrow at 
the bottom and wider at the top so that the animal in falling in 
gets his foot stuck in such a way that he is unable to remove it. 
Many unsuspecting natives lose their lives in these traps, for the 
sides are so steep that it is almost impossible to climb out, espec- 
ially should he be alone and injured by the spikes at the bottom, 
he will in all probability die a lingering death. 

"In hunting the larger bush animals, and also crocodiles, the 
spear is the most common weapon, and this is hurled with great 
precision and swiftness. But in hunting smaller game, as the 
small antelopes, coypus or palm-rats, bush-pigs, and gazelle-like 
animals, long string nets are employed. These nets are placed in 
a semi-circle near where the animal is supposed to be, and then 
the hunters carefully beat the bush, driving the game before them 
into the net. Most of the hunting spears are light, with a small 
blade and thin shaft, and some have barbs along either side of 
the blade." 1 

Fishing along the rivers is carried on by various methods. 
Torches are used at night and when the fish rise to the surface a 
spear is hurled. During high water, dams are built by the side 
of the river, so that when it recedes, the fish will be left behind 
these. Traps and nets of various ingenious kinds are also used. 

Of the smaller animals grasshoppers and rats are great deli- 
cacies. "After the rainy season, when the long grass is burnt, 
the rat season commences. They are caught in long, narrow, 
basket-work traps, which are cylindrical in shape, and placed in 
such positions that when the grass is set alight, the rats will run 
into the traps, which are too narrow for them to turn around in. 
They are then killed, skewered and broiled." 2 

"The evening meal is practically the only meal of the day, 
and every effort is made to render it as tasty as possible with the 
limited ingredients at the disposal of the woman cook. Cassava 
figures as the principal article in every menu; and for this meal it 
is commonly prepared by soaking it for three days, and then, 
after peeling, coring, and dividing it into quarters, it is steamed, 
and comes out looking white and appetizing. Either fish, or 
meat when procurable, is stewed in a small saucepan or roasted 
over the fire, or wrapped in leaves and covered with red-hot 
embers; but if there is neither fish nor meat, then a sauce of 
pounded leaves, red peppers and palm-oil is concocted, and the 
whole is washed down with gulps of water. They prefer to keep 
sugar-cane wine for their drinking-bouts and for their cannibal 
feasts; the latter, in their view, demanding something better 
than water. 

1 Weeks, p. 234. 

2 Ward, " Five Years with the Congo Cannibals," p. 60. 

[35] 



"The food is served first to the elders (male), and if visitors 
are present they take precedence according to their age. As a 
rule the members of a family are polite to one another, and any 
departure from the usual forms of courtesy is regarded with dis- 
approbation by the other members of the family. Guests are 
treated with hospitality, and are protected by the family they are 
visiting, and I never knew a guest come to harm during a visit. 
Men and women do not eat together, as it is accounted immodest 
and indecent for a woman to eat with a man; and it is infra dig. 
for a man to partake of his food with a woman. They eat by 
themselves at some little distance, and usually out of sight and 
hearing of the men." 1 

Practically all the Congo peoples are, or rather were up to a 
short time ago, cannibals. They eat human flesh because they 
like it, not because they expect to get any spiritual help by eating 
the dead. Slain enemies, friends sick unto death, slaves, or people 
brought in from other tribes for the purpose are eaten, and some- 
times families exchange corpses. 

HOUSES AND VILLAGES. The houses are rectangular in 
shape, made from bamboo or other woods, with walls and roof 
made of palm-braid thatch. 

"A village may have from twenty to five hundred huts in it, 
and even more. The rows of houses are generally built in parallel 
lines to the river; and a head-man possesses one or more lines, 
according to the size of his family or clan. He may have many 
wives, slaves and their wives, 'pawns,' and dependents, and con- 
sequently own several rows of nouses; or he may be the eldest of 
several brothers who, with their wives, slaves, etc., jointly own 
several rows of dwellings. The former head-man is a greater man 
than the latter, he has more prestige in the town, and has greater 
influence in its palavers, for such a man is the head of a powerful 
family, each unit of which may number more than the brothers, 
their wives and slaves." 2 

INDUSTRIAL LIFE. The Congo natives are a great trading 
peoples — -the best in Africa— carrying their produce miles either 
on their heads or in their canoes to some neighboring markets. 
If there are neither markets or market-places a person having 
anything to sell walks through the town calling out its name. 
"Sometimes a person catches a fish that is taboo to him, and he 
will hawk it through the town to try to exchange it for another 
that he can eat." 3 

Trading methods here as elsewhere among primitive people 
are in the nature of haggling. There are neutral market places, 
which are the scene of their vociferous and forensic exchange 
operations. 

Iron hoes and brass rods are the currency; the latter being 
the more common on the upper Congo. Weeks describes this 

1 Weeks, p. 117. 

2 Weeks, pp. 115-116. 

3 Weeks, p. 114. 

[36] 



form of money used, while he' was there, as follows: "A brass 
rod at that time was 15 inches lon^ and not quite so thick as a 
slate pencil. Everything had its price in brass rods — one egg = 
one brass rod; a fowl = ten brass rods; two yards of cloth = 
twenty brass rods; a male slave = 600 brass rods; and a female 
slave = 2,500 brass rods. The brass wire for these rods was 
originally melted down for their brass ornaments — anklets, neck- 
laces, armlets, leg rings, hafts of spears, paddles, and handles of 
knives, etc. It was using the brass for this purpose that first gave 
it any real value to them ; and then they exchanged certain lengths 
of the brass wire at a fixed price — so many fathoms for a goat, 
etc., and gradually the lengths of brass wire became the medium 
of exchange, the unit of value, the currency of the country. In 
1890 the brass rods still retained their value not so much as a 
medium of barter, although they were convenient for that pur- 
pose, but as the metal from which they made their most popular 
ornaments. It is quite possible that the rods changed hands in 
fathom lengths and those who came into possession of these lengths, 
each cut off a little piece to procure a bit of brass for nothing, and 
hence the length was gradually shortened, until in 1890 it was 15 
inches. The process of shortening continued, and in 1905 the stand- 
ard length was only 11 inches. In Bolobo it was about 93^ inches, 
and on the Lower Congo, where brass wire was used long before 
it filtered through to the tribes on the Upper Congo, it was from 
four to five inches only in 1905. Of course, with the shortening 
of the rod, a larger number was given for the article to be purchased. 
Every white man imported his brass wire in coils, and cut the rod 
to the length used in the district where he resided. Brass rods 
are now almost a drug in the market, for not only have they been 
poured into the country in a steady stream for the last thirty 
years, but the custom of melting down brass for the manufacture 
of ornaments has been slowly dying out during the last ten years. 
They desire other things than simply ornaments now." 1 

'Tn their business transactions credit is frequently given, and 
for such credit no interest is expected. To recover a debt a cred- 
itor first duns the debtor until he is tired, then he breaks the pots 
and saucepans, and anything he finds outside the debtor's house, 
and finishes by telling him that on a certain day he will call again 
for the money. If the debtor then fails to pay, the creditor will 
collect a few of his friends, and together they will go and lie in 
ambush near the farms until a wife of the debtor comes along, 
when they will pounce upon her and take her to their town. The 
woman will kick, struggle and scream for the sake of appearances, 
but she knows that she will be lightly tied and well treated. 

"The debtor will hear of the capture of his wife, and, supposing 
he owes 1,000 brass rods, he will collect the money as quickly as 
possible, and take it with 500 extra rods, which he will now have 
to pay to his creditor to compensate him and his friends for the 

1 Weeks, pp. 39-40. 

[37] 



trouble of tying up the woman and the cost of feeding her. As a 
woman is worth nearly 3,000 rods, it pays the debtor to redeem 
his property by paying his debt and the sum demanded for ex- 
penses." 1 

"From his very boyhood the Boloki was a keen trader. He 
accompanied his father on all trading journeys as soon as he was 
able to beat time with a stick in the bows of the canoe, or handle 
a paddle. In the village he learned the value of different articles, 
and nothing delighted him more than exchanging what he did 
not want for something that he needed. While his father was. 
bartering he would eagerly listen, and thus learn how to praise his 
own goods, and disparage in depreciatory terms the articles which 
he desired to purchase, so as to lower their prices. Before an 
article could be exchanged with profit to himself he had many 
things to learn — the first cost of the article, the time spent in 
hawking it, the payment and keep of those who helped to paddle 
him from place to place in search of a buyer — or he would find 
himself poorer at the end of his trading expedition than he was 
at the beginning. This was no small part of the lad's education." 2 

MANUFACTURING. Pottery was made not on a wheel but 
rather "built up on a base by rolling the clay between the palms 
of the hands into long pencils about the size of a finger, and then 
welding the strip to the base and flattening it out with the fingers 
as they worked it around the pot." 3 

'Tn baking their pottery no kilns were used, but firewood was 
laid carefully on the ground, and the pots arranged on the top, 
and then small firewood, twigs, etc., were thrown over the whole 
pile and the fire lighted." 4 

Iron ore was smelted in native crucibles. "The furnace was 
a hole about 18 inches deep, about 15 inches in diameter at the 
top, and 8 to 10 inches at the bottom. Charcoal made from hard 
woods was the heating medium. The smelting pot with the ore 
was put in the middle of the furnace, and the blast was furnished 
by native bellows and conducted to the heart of the furnace by a 
funnel-shaped tube of burnt clay. The bellows were cut out of a 
solid block of wood. There were two holes, each from 8 to 12 
inches in diameter, which opened below into a common wooden 
tube which fitted into the above-mentioned clay funnel. Over 
each of the holes a soft skin was securely tied, and to the centre 
of each skin was fixed a stick about 3 feet, 6 inches long. The 
operator worked the sticks up and down alternately, and the 
more vigorously he worked the more powerful the blast. 

"The native blacksmith made hoes and axes; knives of various 
shapes and sizes; spear-heads of different kinds, barbed for 
fishing-spears, small-bladed ones for fighting, or broad-bladed 
fancy spears for purposes of show when visiting friends and neigh- 

1 Weeks, pp. 114-115. 

2 Weeks, p. 143. 

3 Weeks, p. 87. 

4 Weeks, p. 88. 

[38] 



hours. He also fashioned Large hooks for catching crocodiles, 
the razors for shaving the head or face, lances for killing hippo- 
potami, knives for household use, gouges and chisels for canoe- 
making, and piercers for mat-making. Unfortunately the intro- 
duction of European knives, hoes and axes has ruined this native 
industry." 1 

"The social position of a smith among the natives was very 
high, and he was regarded with as much respect as a professional 
man is in Europe. The natives thought that the smith was not 
only wise and skilful, but that he practised witchcraft in order to 
perform his work properly. No one was allowed to step over a 
smith's furnace, nor blow it with his mouth, nor spit into it, as 
either of these actions would pollute the fire, and thus cause bad 
workmanship. Any person polluting the fire would have to com- 
pensate the smith by the payment of a heavy fine. A smith taught 
his son or his nephew the trade, but would not take an apprentice 
on any consideration. He was always known by the name of his 
trade, and was consequently called motuli = the one who tula, 
or works in iron." 2 

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY. Girls are frequently be- 
trothed at a very early age, and payments pass from the man, 
who may be 40 years old, to the parents of the girl before she is 
old enough to give her consent. "When the girl arrives at a 
suitable age, and sometimes even before puberty, she is taken by 
her parents, together with some sugar-cane wine, to her husband, 
and handed over to him, and on the man giving the parents a 
present the transaction is completed." 3 

When a free man marries a free woman the price which he 
has to pay her parents consists of two male and two female slaves, 
brass rods or barter goods will not be taken in lieu of them. 

"During the time the man is collecting the marriage money 
he will build a house, if he does not already possess one, and the 
girl, under the supervision of her mother, will prepare a farm. 
After the ceremony described above is over, the girl borrows all 
the finery she can of. her female friends, decorates herself with 
palm-oil and camwood powder, and for two or three w r eeks walks 
about the town with her husband — a sign to all that she is now 
his wife. If the man has already a few wives, they will help to 
'dress her' by the loan of their own trinkets, and wilf lead her 
about the town as a proof that she is now a fellow-wife and belongs 
to their husband." 4 

A man may marry as many free women as he can pay for, but 
to each he must give a house, and they all have equal rights. 
Besides these he may possess numerous female slaves, but should 
he be unable to buy any of these, he can hire them for a time. 

"When a free woman does not want to marry the man who is 

1 Weeks, pp. 88-89. 
"- Weeks, pp. 90-91. 

3 Weeks, p. 122. 

4 Weeks, p. 124. 

[39] 



trying to arrange for her, she will tell him frankly that if he per- 
sists in marrying her, she will run away from him. But if, in 
spite of this threat, he completes the arrangements, then a few 
days after the marriage she will escape to a neighbouring town 
and put herself under the protection of the chief by tearing his 
cloth. The chief then gives the husband notice of what has 
happened, and before he can claim his wife he has to pay the 
chief 600 brass rods = 39S. as compensation for his torn cloth. 
If the husband does not then permit her to marry the man she 
wants, she runs away again and again, and every time she runs 
it will cost her husband 600 brass rods. A sensible man will take 
warning by the first threat, and will not complete the marriage." 1 

A man is not allowed to have anything to do with his mother- 
in-law, in fact, if he hears that she is coming he will run in the 
opposite direction and hide. 

On the Lower Congo the women desire to have children but 
on the upper stretches of the river small families are the rule. 
"This may be accounted for by the fact that on the Lower Congo 
the law of mother-right is in full force, and consequently all the 
children belong to the mother and her family; while on the Upper 
Congo father-right is the general custom, and the children be- 
longing to the father, the mother has no particular interest in them. 

"The beliefs of a tribe considerably affect their point of view, 
and this is seen in nothing more emphatically than in their beliefs 
about child-bearing. On the Lower Congo a non-child-bearing 
woman is the butt of the town's ridicule, she is sneered at, pointed 
at by all the other women, and is the object of their scorn. She 
feels degraded in the eyes of all, and, however much she may 
blame her husband, or may try to prove that she is bewitched, 
yet her shame is bitterly felt and resented. She has failed igno- 
miniously in her one paramount duty to her family. Her sterility 
is the constant theme of her husband's bickerings; and when 
everything else fails to quiet her or stop her nagging tongue, he 
has only to hint at this abnormal disability and she is choked 
with chagiin and almost ready to commit suicide." 2 

There are cases on record where a man had "eight wives, and 
he had five children by one and none by the others ; another had 
ten wives and no children; another had twenty-three wives and 
only one child ; another twenty-five wives and three children only ; 
another who had eight wives had three children." 3 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. In this region there is a great deal 
of painting and scarring of the body, of tooth-filing and lip- 
plugging. Heavy rings are frequently worn on the limbs, the 
wearer being sometimes almost unable to walk by reason of the 
weight of his finery. Umbrellas are a mark of dignity. What 
native clothing is worn is chiefly of bark. Naturally these people 
are very fond of European clothing and trinkets. 

1 Weeks, p. 126. 

2 Weeks, p. 129. 

3 Weeks, p. 135. 

[40] 



"It is customary among the Upper Congo people to stamp 
their features and persons, by means of cicatrization, with various 
designs, differing according to the tribe. About the age of four 
the operation is first commenced, the skin of the face being gashed 
in conformity with the tribal pattern; after some months have 
elapsed, so that the wounds may be completely healed, they are 
re-cut, and each gash is filled with redwood powder, produced 
from crushed camwood, of which the forest yields a plentiful 
supply. After frequent repetitions of this barbarous mutilation, 
the skin and flesh become hardened and protrude in lumps, be- 
tween the incisions." 1 

"The natives are fond of water, and bathe frequently during 
a hot day; and children are bathed regularly twice a day. A 
mother takes her infant to the river and, gripping it tightly just 
under the right armpit, she dips it beneath the water. And, 
after holding it there many moments, she will lift it out, and just 
as it regains its breath to start crying, down it will go again. 
This is repeated about a dozen times, and then rubbing the su- 
perfluous water with the palm of her hand, she holds it out in the 
sun for a few moments to dry. Riverine people can remain under 
the water for a long time while attending their fish-nets, and this 
habit they have gained from those infantile experiences, when it 
was either holding the breath, or drinking a quantity of dirty 
river water." 2 

RELIGION. The religion of the Congo tribes is difficult to 
define. Belief in a Supreme Being is vague but universal, but as 
this Being is good, or at least neutral, he is disregarded. It is 
believed by the natives that, after having performed his creative 
works, he withdrew to a great distance; that "He has now little 
or no concern in mundane affairs; and apparently no power over 
spirits and no control over the lives of men, either to protect them 
from malignant spirits or to help them by averting danger. They 
also consider the Supreme Being (Nzambi) as being so good and 
kind that there is no need to appease Him by rites, ceremonies or 
sacrifices." 3 

The native applies himself to the propitiation and coercion, 
by magical means, of the countless malignant spirits with which 
he imagines himself to be surrounded, and which are constantly 
on the watch to catch him unawares. 

Every person has a fetish which is carried around most of the 
time. If a man is ill he goes to the medicine man and obtains a 
special fetish to help his complaint. 

"On the Lower Congo the native offers periodic sacrifices to 
his fetish to keep it in a good humour, otherwise through sulkiness 
it may refuse to help him; or he returns it to a medicine man to 
renew its energies when it proves too weak for his purpose; he 
explodes gunpowder around it to arouse it to proper alertness 

1 Ward, p. 136. 

2 Weeks, p. 109. 

3 Weeks, p. 247. 

[41] 
3 



that it may attend to its owner's affairs; or he beats it to make it 
subservient to his wishes, but he never worships it, nor does he 
ever pay homage to it." 1 

The soul of man is supposed to leave the body during sleep,, 
in a trance, and at death. The mouths and nostrils of the recently 
dead are plugged and tied, for the people think that the soul of 
a dying man escapes through the mouth and nose, and hence they 
are tied to keep the spirit as long as possible. 

They also conceive of the soul of a person as in his shadow,, 
reflection in the water or a mirror, and in a photograph. 

When a person dies the cause is laid to one of three things,, 
either an act of the Supreme Being, or by another's witchcraft, 
or by his. own witchcraft. The medicine man or witch-doctor is 
called in to determine which of the three is responsible. If some 
one else has caused the death, the doctor points out the man or 
woman supposed to be guilty, and death speedily follows. 

Bodies, after being painted and decorated with shells, etc., 
are buried in the ground, if they are not eaten. Usually one or 
more of the wives of a man are killed at the grave and for a big 
chief as many as three hundred victims have been slain. It was 
partly to provide such victims that the brisk slave trade was kept 
up. Bodies have been frequently disinterred for cannibalistic 
purposes. 

REGULATIVE SYSTEM. There is a division of classes, as 
is natural where migration and subjugation are the order of the 
day: an aristocracy and slaves at the bottom. Central Africa 
has been the great theatre of the slave trade, and even before the 
coming of the Arabs and Portuguese, there was a good deal of it, 
for slaves were means of power and a money value. However, 
the native slavery was very mild as compared with the system 
after the coming of the foreigner. The man-hunts, continued 
under Arab and European influence, produced general devastation. 

The general political situation is one of disintegration. The 
people are all split up into tribes, and there are numerous petty 
premises, each with his military establishment. There exists the 
"normal anarchy of African miniature republics." The chief is 
primus inter pares, and is so much the greater if he is also a witch- 
doctor. Empires grow under capable chiefs; then these chiefs 
put their relatives in charge of provinces, and presently the em- 
pire breaks up. 

1 Weeks, p. 254. 



[42] 



CHAPTER VI. 



NEGROES OF THE WEST CENTRAL COAST. 

The word Negro comes from the Latin, Niger, meaning 
black, and is used to distinguish the distinctly dark skinned 
peoples as opposed to the fair, yellow and brown varieties of 
mankind. In its broadest sense it applies to all the dark 
races of Africa, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, but it 
is most convenient to refer to the peoples of these zones as 
Negroids and to reserve the term Negro for those tribes which 
exhibit in the most marked degree the typical characteristics 
of this variety. 

These peoples are found in Africa and occupy part of the 
territory south of the Sahara desert and north of the Bantu 
group, which contains their nearest relatives. "The relation 
of the yellowish-brown Bushman and Hottentot peoples of the 
southern extremity of Africa to the negro is uncertain ; they 
possess certain negroid characters, the tightly curled hair, the 
broad nose, the tendency towards prognathism ; but their color 
and a number of psychological and cultural differences would 
seem to show that the relation is not close." 1 

GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE. This territory occupied 
by the negro is lower than other portions of Africa, averaging 
only about 2,000 feet and possessing no real mountain ranges. 
Along the Guinea, Gold, Slave, and Ivory Coasts, that region 
with which this chapter is to deal, there are very deep indenta- 
tions made by lagoons with heavily wooded shores. 

"The amount of vegetation in Africa varies generally ac- 
cording to distance from the equator. The equatorial region 
is a dense forest resulting from the copious rains, while towards 
the north and south the amount of rain diminishes and finally 
ceases almost altogether, giving rise to wide stretches of 
desert. Only differences of elevation and proximity to the sea 
modify this general law." 2 Along the western coast, and in- 
land near the equator, the jungle is so dense that not only the 
sun is obscured but also the air is excluded so that while the 
tops of trees are rustling in the breeze the people below are 
gasping for breath. 

The rainy season is from June to October Ibut on the Guinea 
coast the rain falls from 200 to 250 days in the year. This 
makes a large number of swamps and stagnant pools which are 
breeding places for diseases. "Except in a few favored locali- 
ties the climate of the Sudan is fatal to the European. The 

1 Encycl. Brit, under Negro by T. A. Joyce. 

2 J. Dowd, " The Negro Race," p. 68. 

[43] 



high temperature and the humid, air, unrelieved by change of 
seasons, are exceedingly enervating, and nowhere near the 
coast can one refresh himself with a cool draught of water. 
At the close of the rainy season, the miasmatic exhalations 
from the stagnant waters, left everywhere by the subsidence of 
the rivers, poison the atmosphere and render it injurious and 
often fatal to both man and beast." 1 

The death rate of whites in this region is enormous. It has 
been estimated that out of every 1,000 members of the white 
population 680 succumb to the effects of the heat and disease. 
The negro, however, is of course adapted to this climate. 

ANIMAL LIFE. ' ' The animal life of the Sudan comprises 
the elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippopotamus, lion, tiger, wolf, 
ox, sheep, goat, deer, ass, camel, hyena, jackal, panther, wild- 
cat, lynx, leopard, rhinoceros, wild boar, hare, squirrel, hog, 
monkey, antelope, etc. The natives claim that there are two 
species of crocodile, one which man eats, and one which eats 
man. The number of wild animals available for food is not 
very great in the neighborhood of the coast, on account of the 
swampy nature of the country and the dense forests, and the 
early introduction of the shot-gun which has depleted the 
region of such animals as it originally contained. Elephants 
were formerly very abundant along the island seaboard, and 
in the sixteenth century more ivory came from the Gambia 
region than from any other part of Africa." 2 

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERS OF NEGRO. 
The negro is tall, has a dolichocephalic skull, prognathous jaw, 
nose broad and flat, lips full and everted, teeth large. The 
color of the skin varies from a dark brown to nearly black. 
The skin has a velvety texture and characteristic odor. The 
hair is black, tightly curled with a flat cross section and is 
scanty on face and body. The arm is very long, especially 
the forearm, so that frequently the tips of fingers will nearly 
touch the knees. The legs are long with a very small calf and 
projecting heel. 

"Mentally the negro is inferior to the white. The remark 
of F. Manetta, made after a long study of the negro in America, 
may be taken as generally true of the whole race : 'the negro 
children were sharp, intelligent and full of vivacity, but on ap- 
proaching the adult period a gradual change set in. The in- 
tellect seemed to become clouded, animation giving place to a 
sort of lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. We must 
necessarily suppose that the development of the negro and 
white proceeds on different lines. While with the latter the 
volume of the brain grows with the expansion of the brainpan, 
in the former the groAvth of the brain is on the contrary ar- 



1 Dowd, p. 72. 

2 Dowd, p. 73. 



[44] 



rested by the premature closing of the cranial sutures and 
lateral pressure of the frontal bone.' This explanation is rea- 
sonable and even probable as a contributing cause; but evi- 
dence is lacking on the subject and the arrest or even deteriora- 
tion in mental development is no doubt very largely due to the 
fact that after puberty sexual matters take first place in the 
negro's life and thoughts. At the same time his environment 
has not been such as would tend to produce in him the restless 
energy which has led to the progress of the Avhite race ; and 
the easy conditions of tropical life and the fertility of the soil 
have reduced the struggle for existence to a minimum. But 
though the mental inferiority of the negro to the white or yel- 
low races is a fact, it has often been exaggerated ; the negro 
is largely the creature of his environment, and it is not fair to 
judge of his mental capacity by tests taken directly from the 
environment of the white man, as for instance tests in mental 
arithmetic ; skill in reckoning is necessary to the white race, 
and it has cultivated this faculty ; but it is not necessary to 
the Negro. 

"On the other hand negroes far surpass white men in acute- 
ness of vision, hearing, sense of direction and topography. A 
native who has once visited a particular locality will rarely 
fail to recognize it again. For the rest, the mental constitu- 
tion of the negro is very similar to that of a child, normally 
good-natured and cheerful, but subject to sudden fits of emo- 
tion and passion during which he is capable of performing 
acts of singular atrocity, impressionable, vain, but often ex- 
hibiting in the capacity of servant a dog-like fidelity which has 
stood the supreme test. Given suitable training, the negro is 
capable of becoming a craftsman of considerable skill, particu- 
larly in metal work, carpentry and carving. The bronze cast- 
ings by the cire perdue process, and the cups and horns of 
ivory elaborately carved, which were produced by the natives 
of Guinea after their intercourse with the Portuguese of the 
16th century, bear ample witness to this. But the rapid decline 
and practical evanescence of both industries, when that inter- 
course was interrupted, shows that the native craftsman was 
raised for the moment above his normal level by direct foreign 
inspiration, and was unable to sustain the high quality of his 
work when that inspiration failed." 1 

The negro is as a rule cruel, having little feelings for the 
suffering of others and often delighting in the most diabolical 
tortures. If a man is ill and he has no slaves or wives to help 
him he is left to die and "the desertion by his parents and 
friends is not even regarded as a fault. " " The most revolting 
scenes of cruelty and bloodshed," says Ellis, "are regarded by 
the populace generally with positive pleasure and no sooner is 

1 Encycl. Brit, under Negro, pp 344-345. 

[45] 



the death-drum heard, than an excited mob, eager for the 
spectacle, rushes to the spot and imbitters the last moments of 
the victims with taunts and jeers. * * * . The executioners 
to pander to the tastes of the mob or to gratify their own lust 
for cruelty, practice the most shocking barbarities, 'blunting 
their knives to increase the suffering of their victims or cut- 
ting pieces of flesh from the neck before striking off the head. 
In fact, the most refined tortures that human ingenuity can de- 
vise are constantly inflicted, death is ever present, and human 
suffering and human life are alike disregarded. Two Euro- 
peans who witnessed an execution in Ashanti reported that the 
'murderer with his hands bound behind him, a knife through 
his cheeks, and two forks piercing his back, was dragged by a 
rope past our rooms. * * * Commencing at midday, the 
punishment increased in intensity till eight o'clock, when the 
poor wretch was gashed all over, his arms cut off, and himself 
compelled to dance for the amusement of the king before being 
taken to the place of execution. If he could not or would not 
dance, lighted torches were applied to his wounds; to escape 
this excessive torture he made the greatest efforts to move, 
until the drum was beaten and the head cut off.' "* 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. The negro is principally an agri- 
culturist, except in those regions where the denseness of the 
jungle or the impenetrability of the swamps makes artificial 
planting impossible. The principal crops are yams, bananas, 
manioc with some maize ; but the chief one is the yam. This is 
a tuber or root resembling the English potato, only very much 
larger, sometimes being three feet in length. The fields for 
its planting are prepared by being burned over and the ashes 
are then turned in to act as fertilizer. The earth is made into 
little hills into each one of which a yam is placed. During the 
growing season great care has to be taken to keep the weeds 
out, for a very short time would suffice to choke out the young 
plants. At the time of the harvest, every one goes out into the 
fields to help. The yams are gathered and stored in a house 
used solely for that purpose on the outskirts of the village. 
It is usually left open, but in order to protect it from theft, 
magical charms, obtained from the medicine man, are hung 
around it. These are so effective that no one will go near 
the building who does not belong there. 

The yam is prepared for eating either by being peeled, cut 
into slices and boiled in a pot, or by being mashed with other 
things into a sort of pudding. 

Next to agriculture, hunting and fishing are important, and 
in some few districts cattle-raising is indulged in. While the 
negro is principally a vegetarian, yet it is not because he pre- 
fers to be, but rather because animal food is scarce. Meat is 

1 Ellis, " Tshi Speaking People," pp. 174-175. 

[46] 



regarded as a great delicacy, but even among the cattle-raising 
peoples it is not plentiful, for the cattle being regarded as cur- 
rency are seldom killed. But where they will not kill their 
domestic animals they will kill human beings. This flesh is 
eaten, not because they expect any magical good will come of 
it, but rather because the people like it. 

The chief drink is the palm wine which is collected from the 
palm tree as follows : "Every morning and evening the climber 
ascends this palm, and making with a very sharp knife a small 
incision in the bark, inserts a bamboo funnel, and hangs up a 
calabash or gourd into which the sap slowly trickles. In the 
morning he collects the product of the night, and in the even- 
ing that of the day. The method of climbing is very ingenious. 
Putting around the trunk one end of an elongated hoop of 
bamboo and basket-work, the climber gets into the other end ; 
it clasps him securely round the- waist, and, leaning back, he 
ascends by working the opposite end of the hoop up the trunk in 
the series of notches made by the lopping off of the branches as 
the tree increased in growth, his feet at the same time climbing 
up from notch to notch. It is poured out into earthen pots or 
glass demijohns, and diluted with the same quantity of water. 
Undiluted, it is rather strong and heady. Palm-wine tastes 
something like cider, and varies considerably, sometimes ibeing 
quite sweet, while at other times it is almost as bitter as Here- 
fordshire cider. Chiefs, and other people who can afford it, 
occasionally drink enough of it to become intoxicated." 1 

One of the most important crafts is iron smelting and work- 
ing. "No negro tribe has been found of which the culture is 
typical of the stone age ; or, indeed which makes any use of 
stone implements except to crush ore and hammer metal. Even 
these are rough pieces of stone of convenient size, not shaped 
in any way by chipping or grinding. Doubtless the richness 
of the African soil in metal ores rendered the stone age in 
Africa a period of very short duration." 2 Many of the artisans 
have formed castes or guilds — for example the smiths. 

Other industries include basket work, pottery, and weaving 
cloth. 

In this region there is shown great talent for commerce ; 
one authority says it is the "only force making for culture." 
There are weekly markets, and every negro village has its 
broker; also trading prime ministers and trading viceroys are 
to be found. The articles of trade are the products of the 
country and the things manufactured by the people. Where 
the Europeans have entered the country they have brought with 
them such things as muskets, gunpowder, rum, fabrics, and 
trinkets which have been exchanged for gold, ivory, palm oil, 

1 C. Partridge, " Cross River Natives," pp. 150-151. 

2 Encycl. Brit, under Negro, p. 345. 

[47] 



and formerly, slaves. "Trading is practised either by direct 
barter or through the medium of rude forms of currency which 
vary according to locality. Value is reckoned among the 
tribes with pastoral tendencies in cattle and goats; among the 
eastern negroes by hoe-and-spear-iblades and salt blocks ; in the 
west by cowries, brass rods, and bronze armlets (manilas)." 1 

"The early writers report that the transportation system 
consisted of porters, mostly women, who carried goods to and 
from the markets. Not infrequently a woman supported a 
baby on her back in addition to her load of merchandise. In 
thick forests the carriers bore their loads in frames on their 
backs while with a knife in hand they cut their way through 
the underbrush. Rich people sometimes traveled in hammocks 
borne by their slaves. Dahoman princes now and then rode on 
horseback, but the horse was regarded as a rare and strange 
beast and always two slaves had to walk beside the rider to 
hold him on. The same methods of transportation exist at the 
present time with the addition of a few railroads lately con- 
structed by Europeans. One of these roads runs from the 
Dahoman Coast to the middle course of the Niger and another 
from Lagos to Rabba on the Niger. Of course, canoe naviga- 
tion is common on all the bays and rivers, but the boats made 
and used by the natives are generally of inferior workman- 
ship." 2 

SLAVERY. "Slavery in this zone, as everywhere else in 
the Sudan, has existed from time immemorial and owes its 
origin to native economic and political conditions. As the men 
do not work it is evident that they do not need helpers or 
slaves. On the other hand as all of the work falls upon the 
women, it is evident that if slave labor is used at all it must be 
to help them. The demand for labor is partly supplied by the 
addition of several wives to each houshold. Now, as each man 
has several wives it would seem that whatever work is neces- 
sary for the support of a family could be done by the combined 
labor of the wives, but not so. The wives have a disposition 
to shirk their work, especially when they are used as porters to 
carry goods to and from the markets, and therefore it becomes 
necessary to seek other laborers. But where is the supply to 
come from? Land being free and capital a superfluity, every 
man can make an easy living and need not under any circum- 
stances ask another man to support him. Hence no one will 
voluntarily work for another, and the only way that laborers 
can he obtained is by coercion, i. e., by forcing them to work as 
slaves. Here we find the explanation of slavery. Primarily it 
arises from the indisposition of people to work for themselves, 
and secondarily, from their inability to get others to work for 
them except by force." 3 

1 Encycl. Brit., p. 345. 

2 Dowd, p. 97. 

3 Dowd, p. 98. 

[48] 



"Slaves were obtained by sale of debtors and criminals and 
by kidnapping and raiding. * * * Not only is the labor of 
slaves Light but it is less painful than the labor of the serving 
class among civilized people. Slaves can hunt, fish, dance and 
enjoy all of the excitements common to free men. They work 
only with irregularity and the demands upon their attention 
are only intermittent. Often slaves are left to do as they 
please provided they lodge at home, feed themselves and give 
to their master a fixed sum per week." 1 "They are consid- 
ered members of the family, they can acquire and inherit prop- 
erty, they can own slaves themselves and not infrequently pur- 
chase their freedom by buying other slaves to take their places. 
Prior to the European intervention, idle, vicious and mutinous 
slaves were punished by flogging and imprisonment, but no 
slave-owner could take the life of his slave, and it was seldom 
that a slave ran away. ' ' 2 

However, where there are too many slaves to carry on the 
limited amount of economic life, the superfluous ones are kept 
for food. As a rule all of a man's slaves are killed on his 
grave. It was from this district that the slaves brought to the 
United States were captured. 

HOUSES AND VILLAGES. The houses are either rectan- 
gular or round but in both cases there is only one family in 
each house. They are built around an open space with the 
fronts facing in, while the backs form the outer wall of the 
enclosure. When there are too few houses for this purpose, 
the gaps between them are filled in with high stakes. There 
are no windows in the back walls. 

A village may consist of a great many of these compounds, 
each one of which is occupied by a man, his family and rela- 
tions. If the village is in a war-like district, it is surrounded 
by a high stockade which has only one entrance to it, and this 
very narrow. 

The rectangular houses have a solid foundation of dried 
mud a yard high upon which is erected a light frame work of 
wood. The roof is made from palm branches woven into mats. 
The round houses, which are the more primitive, have a wall 
made of mud and small stones and a conical thatched roof 
which will throw off the heavy tropical showers. Every town 
has an open space which is used by the community for gather- 
ings and public meetings, and here is erected the temple or 
shrine to the local deity. 

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY. There are two ways 
for a man to obtain a wife ; he may capture her, or he may pur- 
chase her by means of gifts to her parents. As a rule girls are 
cheap, for they are more plentiful than men and are not re- 

1 Dowd, p. 99. 

2 Ellis, " Ewe Speaking People," pp. 219-220. 

[49] 



garded as an especial asset to a family. In some places the 
purchase price consists of a few ornaments to the girl. "In 
Dahomi it used to be the custom for the men to purchase their 
wives from the king, who was supposed to own everything in 
the empire, including the women. He kept up his supply by 
frequent raids upon neighboring villages. In many cases chil- 
dren are betrothed at five or six years of age, and sometimes 
before they are born. In either event the purchaser pays to 
the girl's parents a part of the price in advance, and the bal- 
ance when the girl reaches the age of puberty. If a betrothed 
girl dies, the family must substitute another. Girls who reach 
the marriageable age without being betrothed, make their debut 
into society by painting their faces and arms, decking them- 
selves with jewels and finery, and with a broom in their hands 
to drive away evil spirits, exhibit themselves in the streets. 
They thus announce that they are ready to receive bids. Mar- 
riage is a somewhat commercial or animal affair in which there 
is little admixture of romance. A suitor does not say, 'I love 
this girl,' but 'I want her.' Being a mere chattel the girl has 
no choice in the selection of her husband. A female is always 
treated as property ; first she is the property of her parents, 
then of her husband (although in some cases a wife may own 
property distinct from that of her husband's) and later of her 
inheritor. In some districts it is usual just before the mar- 
riage for women to be immured in huts for the purpose of un- 
dergoing a fattening process. In a majority of cases marriages 
are celebrated by feasting and dancing, but sometimes they 
occur without any kind of ceremony. Girls marry as soon as 
they reach the age of puberty, become mothers at the age of 
thirteen or fourteen, and grandmothers at the age of thirty- 
five." 1 

Polygamy prevails; in fact a man's head wife urges him to 
take more wives so that the work will be lighter for each one. 
Each wife has a separate hut. 

Most of the tribes are very lax about morality; a girl may 
choose whom she pleases before she is married, and although 
she may be engaged, her future husband will not try to re- 
strain her. Even after marriage there is little restraint placed 
upon the sexes. 

"The burden of supporting the family devolves almost ex- 
clusively upon the women. With two or three wives or slaves, 
a man can live from year to year in tolerable ease and luxury. 
His women bring food for him from the plantain groves, some- 
times bearing on their backs a hundred weight of fruit. They 
bring fire-wood from the forest and water from the nearest 
streams. In so far as the man is concerned, the only burden 
of supporting a family consists in the original expenses of the 

1 Dowd, pp. 133-134. 

[50] 



wedding. A clear souse of the obligation to support a wife 
does not arise anywhere until property begins to be held as 
a unit by the father, as it is among pastoral people, and to be 
transmitted without division in the male line." 1 

Children are regarded as a blessing, not from any idea of 
affection but rather as another person who will work. A 
mother will tend her child until it is old enough to shift for 
itself and then she pays little more attention to it. Parents 
will frequently sell their children for slaves if they can get a 
good price for them. Twins are regarded with abhorrence, and 
a woman who brings forth more than one child at a birth is 
regarded as no better than an animal. It is thought that an 
evil spirit is the father of one of them, and hence either one or 
both are frequently destroyed. 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. The original dress of this region 
was a cloth of woven grass around the waist, but since the 
people have been in contact with Europeans the styles have 
changed. Many of the people now wear colored cotton dresses 
which reach from the waist to the knees and over the shoulder 
a mantle of some stuff. Nothing delights a native more than 
to rig himself out in the cast off finery of a foreigner. The men 
have a special fondness for long white women's stockings, 
wearing many pairs one over another, however hot the weather. 
One Ashanti king is described as wearing a brown velvet coat, 
white satin trousers, white linen shirt, black beaver hat with 
a band of silver lace, and a spotted silk muslin sash. 

The people also put on the body as many ornaments as pos- 
sible, and the members of the royal family simply load their 
necks, shoulders, breasts, wrists, and ankles with gold trinkets. 
The body is frequently painted, especially on festival occasions 
or for religious reasons. During a period of mourning a woman 
will draw large white circles around her eyes, and before she 
is married her body is covered with red paint. 

The negroes are all fond of music and are quick to pick up 
new tunes. The boatmen sing all day when they are paddling 
keeping time to the music with their paddles ; the women sing 
while pounding grain, and the farmer while working on his 
farm. The music is a sort of monotonous chant with a few 
phrases over and over again. 

RELIGION. The basis of the religion of the negro is 
animism. He conceives of a soul in everything, thus giving 
him an explanation for all phenomena. He himself has two 
principal souls or spirits, one of which wanders during dreams, 
the other remains with the body. 2 At death the body spirit 
goes to the next world but the dream spirit, bra, may be reborn 
in other human beings or in animals. 

1 Dowd, pp. 139-140. 

2 Ellis, "Ewe Speaking People," p. 102. 

[51] 



A person's kra escapes through the mouth of a sleeper and 
if the mouth is left open a strange kra may enter and take up 
its abode there, thus causing much trouble. If a man is awak- 
ened suddenly his kra may be away so that the man becomes 
ill. The witch doctor is called in and he gets a new one for 
the man. In day time the kra will follow the man around in 
the form of a shadow and so people will avoid walking on the 
shady side of the street for fear of losing their shadow and 
hence their kra. Alligators will sometimes pull a man into the 
river by seizing his shadow, and "murders are sometimes com- 
mitted by secretly driving a nail or knife into a man's shadow, 
and so on, but if the murderer be caught red-handed at it, he 
or she would be forthwith killed." 1 

If a man wakes up in the morning feeling tired he says 
that his dream-soul has been out fighting and has been bruised ; 
and if he wakes up in a fright, he jumps up and fires off his 
gun to scare away the devils who have been chasing his soul 
home. It is possible to injure the dream-soul of another man 
by setting a trap for it containing things which the dream-soul 
enjoys. Around the trap are put knives, if it is only desired 
to injure the dream-soul, hut fish hooks if it is to be caught. 

' ' The reason for catching dream-souls with hooks is usually 
a low mercenary one. You see, many patients insist on having 
their own dream-soul put back into them — they don't want a 
substitute from the doctor's store — so of course the soul has 
to be bought from the witch who has got it. Sometimes, how- 
ever, the witch is the hireling of some one intent on injuring a 
particular person and keen on capturing the soul for this pur- 
pose, though too frightened to kill his enemy outright. So the 
soul is not only caught and kept, but tortured, hung up over 
the canoe fire and so on, and thus, even if the patient has 
another dream-soul put in, so long as his original soul is in the 
hands of a torturer, he is uncomfortable." 2 

Some of the negro tribes do not limit these dual souls to 
man but consider that plants have them. When the plant 
dies one soul goes to the land of the dead to form a plant there 
and the kra is reborn in the seed which forms the new plant. 

All these nature spirits take an active part in man's eco- 
nomic, social, and political life and hence there is a constant 
need of so propitiating them that they will deal kindly with 
him. Before any hunting or fishing expedition takes place the 
spirits must be invoked and sacrifices made, otherwise there 
will be little success. 

In every community one of the most important individuals 
is the Fetish Man. In those districts where there are definite 
gods the Fetish Man becomes a priest devoted to the service of 

1 Miss Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 208. (London 1899.) 

2 Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 206. 

[52] 



one god and incidentally with minor spirits; the oilier gods of 
the community are taken care of by other priests. Where the 
gods are less defined the Fetish Man deals with them together 
and also lakes charge of the spirits. If the gods are of Little im- 
portance, the Fetish Man takes charge of the spirits assisted 
by one strong spirit with whom he has come in contact. 1 

"The priest's office may in some cases be hereditary, but it 
is not uniformly so, for the children of Fetish Men sometimes 
refuse to devote themselves to the pursuits of their parents and 
engage in other occupations. Any one may enter the office 
after suitable training, and parents who desire that their chil- 
dren may !be instructed in its mysteries place them with a 
Fetish Man, who receives a premium for each. The order of 
Fetish Men is further augmented by persons who declare that 
the fetish has suddenly seized on them. A series of convulsive 
and unnatural bodily distortions establish their claim. Appli- 
cation is made to the fetish for counsel and aid in every domes- 
tic and public emergency. When persons find occasion to con- 
sult a private Fetish Man, they take a present of gold-dust and 
rum and proceed to his house. He receives the presents, and 
either puts a little of the rum on the head of every image or 
pours a small quantity on the ground before the platform as an 
offering to the whole pantheon ; then, taking a brass pan with 
water in it, he sits down with the pan between him and the 
fetishes, and his inquirers also seat themselves to await the 
result. Having made these preparatory arrangements, looking 
earnestly into the water, he begins to snap his fingers, and ad- 
dressing the fetish, extols his power, telling him that the people 
have arrived to consult him, and requesting him to come and 
give the desired answer. After a time the Fetish Man is 
wrought up into a state of fury. He shakes violently and 
foams at the mouth ; this is to intimate that the fetish has come 
home and that he himself is no longer the speaker, but the 
fetish, who uses his mouth and speaks by him. He now growls 
like a tiger and asks the people if they have brought rum, re- 
quiring them at the same time to present it to him. He drinks, 
and then inquires for what purpose they have sent for him. 
If a relative is ill, they reply that such a member of their 
family is sick and they have tried all the means they could 
devise to restore him, but without success, and they, knowing 
he is a great fetish, have come to ask his aid, and beg him to 
teach them what they should do. He then speaks kindly to them, 
expresses a hope that he shall (be able to help them, and says, 
'I go to see.' It is imagined that the fetish then quits the 
priest, and, after a silence of a few minutes, he is supposed to 
return, and gives his response to the inquirers." 2 

1 Kingsley, " West African Studies," p. 169. 

2 Kingsley, " West African Studies," pp. 171-172. 

[53] 



REGULATIVE SYSTEM. Each tribe is ruled over by a 

king whose great symbol of power is his throne. A horse's tail 
hung from his shoulders indicates his rank and it is to him 
alone that the privilege of having an umbrella carried over his 
head is granted. The king also carries a staff with which he 
perambulates at night driving people home — thus acting as a 
sort of curfew. The natives were formerly very slavish to 
their kings, licking the soles of their feet as an indication of 
their subjection, and rubbing dust on their faces before they 
spoke to their royal master. 

"The chief is surrounded by a council, the members of 
which are taken from the nobles or the village headmen. Sev- 
eral have about them nobles who gather up what they spit and 
take it out, a private stool-bearer, and a fool, who has to keep 
the environs of the palace clean. The principal burden on the 
chief are the fetters of the china, a grandeur recalling the 
Polynesian taboo, which forbids him — among the Loanga peo- 
ple the nobles also — to sleep in any place surrounded by water, 
whether island or boat, or to cross certain rivers. Some might 
not leave their dwellings at night, nor look upon the sea, a 
horse, or a white man. Sometimes he was a poor prisoner, 
with whom only his visible representative and three of the 
eldest men might hold intercourse, and that with their backs 
to him. As elsewhere among negroes, the people hear nothing 
of the king's death; his body moulders away in the hut, after 
which the bones are buried in or beside it. Then follows the 
well-known interregnum when lawlessness prevails. The 
witch-doctors discover some one who has caused the death by 
magical arts, and who is naturally put to death therefore. 
Meanwhile the elders have ascertained the lawful heir; and 
then a band hunt an antelope in one direction and cuts its head 
off, while another band in another direction similarly cut off 
the head of the first man they light upon. With the two heads 
the medicine-man then does magic business, that his consecra- 
tion may not be lacking to the accession. Among some tribes 
the right of succession falls to the head wife; elsewhere she 
takes a place like the Lukokesha in Lunda." 1 

"The endlessly recurring conversations and councils be- 
tween the chief and his magnates bear on the coast the ill- 
famed name of 'palavers' or in older writings 'cabals'. Every 
talk or council held by several persons is here called a palaver, 
and the name is transferred to the disputes which are settled at 
them. The most dangerous is the witch-palaver, at which the 
frequent trials for witchcraft are discussed; the most popular, 
as elsewhere, the brandy palaver." 2 

SECRET SOCIETIES. Secret Societies play an important 



1 Ratzel, Vol. Ill, p. 127. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. Ill, pp. 128-129. 



[54] 



part not only socially but also politically in the lives of the 
people. The boys are initiated at puberty hut must pass 
through various grades, each grade admits them to new rights 
and privileges, before they finally know all the secrets. Very 
few men reach the last stage. 

The meetings of these societies are held either in a house 
provided for the purpose and into which no outsider may go 
on pain of death or a heavy fine, or in a cleared space some 
distance from the village. After the meeting the members 
sing, dance, and feast. 

Surrounding these societies is a great deal of mystery for 
the uninitiated so that the power wielded is great. If a man 
of the village has a debt that he is unable to collect, he reports 
to the head man of the society. That night the debtor either 
pays or has his property confiscated. 

The mystery is used by the men to keep their authority 
over the women. If a dispute arises Murnbo Jumbo is sent for. 
This is really a man of the society dressed in a long bark coat, 
and a straw head dress making him about eight feet tall. It 
makes weird noises as it comes out of the bush at night, for it 
only appears at that time. When the women hear it coming 
they run screaming away in fear. If, however, a woman has 
committed some real offense, she is dragged out from her hid- 
ing place, tied to a post and whipped with the Mumbo's rod. 
Both the pain and the terror are enough to keep her from 
offending again for a long time. 

One of the chief implements of many of these societies is 
the "bull-roarer" which is sounded outside the village to an- 
nounce the arrival of the members of the society. The sound 
is said to the voice of a god. 

In one place the members of the society act as police at 
night. They have the right to arrest anyone found out after 
9 o'clock at night. In Lagos, criminals condemned to death 
are given over to the members of the society who are supposed 
to devour the bodies. Their clothes are afterwards found in 
the branches of the trees. Frequently the headless corpse of 
one of these unfortunates is left in the outskirts of the village, 
but no one dares to bury it. 1 

1 H. Webster, " Primitive Secret Societies," pp. 115 ff. 



[55] 



CHAPTER VII. 



MASAI 

HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENT. The Masai live in the 
Uganda Protectorate of East Africa in a region extending 
from the equator to six or seven degrees south. 

Sir Harry Johnston believes that the Masai represent an 
early mixture between the Nilotic Negro and the Hamite 
(Gala-Somali). This blend of peoples must have been isolated 
somewhere in the high mountains or plateaux which lie between 
the Nile and Karamojo country. Here the ancestors of the 
Masai race were no doubt first located, and here the Latuka — 
descendants of the ancestral Masai — still remains, speaking 
a language that is closely allied to the Masai tongue. This 
ancient intermixture betweenHamite andNegro must have been 
a strong power thousands of years ago in the mountainous 
region east of the White Nile between Latitudes 3° and 5°. 
They subjugated a section of the Nilotic Negroes (the Bari), 
and imposed on them a corrupt dialect of the Masai stock (the 
Masai itself being a branch of the Nilotic family much modified 
by Hamitic influence). Some tumultuous movement from the 
north, possibly on the part of other Nilotic Negroes like the 
Dinka and Shiluk, or else intertribal warfare or famine con- 
sequent on drought, drove the ancestors of the modern Masai 
from the mountainous region east of the White Nile in the 
direction of Mount Elgon and Lake Rudolf. 

"After a prolonged settlement on the lands lying between 
this great extinct volcano and the south-west coasts of Lake 
Rudolf, the Masai became divided into two groups — evidently 
not a very ancient division, since both sections speak practi- 
cally the same language at the present day. The more power- 
ful of these divisions reverted to a wholly pastoral life, a semi- 
nomad existence, and a devotion to cattle which caused them to 
raid and ravish in all directions to obtain and maintain enor- 
mous herds." 1 

The weaker Masai lost a greater part of their oxen in 
the tribal war which took place between the agricultural and 
pastoral sections. Some of these people were driven to the 
southern end of Lake Baringo and another branch were forced 
from the western coast-lands of Lake Rudolf to the inhospitable 
country on the south and southeast of that lake. 

Meantime the pastoral Masai had taken possession of the 
southern half of the Rift Valley. Prospering mightily and in- 
creasing in numbers by reason of their valour, they came to 

1 Johnston, " Uganda Protectorate," Vol. II, pp. 796-797. 

[56] 



recognize only two things as worthy of their care and interest, 
namely, cattle and warfare. All the young able-bodied men of 
the tribe were dedicated to fighting for at least twelve years of 
their manhood and thus the pastoral Masai became the lords of 
East Africa about seventy or eighty years ago. 01' late years 
circumstances have tended to change their practice if not their 
ideals. 1 

"When the Maskat Arabs first commenced the trading 
operations which led to their opening up the interior of East- 
ern Africa (about 1835), they already found that the Masai 
were a serious obstacle. They were a proud people, who would 
not stand the slightest bullying or maltreatment on the part of 
the Arabs or their black mercenaries, and a few wholesale 
massacres of Arab caravans by the Masai warriors gave the 
coast traders a dread (which frequently degenerated into 
panic), of these litbe fighters, armed with spears of great 
length or great breadth. In the earlier fifties of the last cen- 
tury the Masai raided to within sight of the Island of Mom- 
basa. Their successful progress in the north was checked by 
the Gala and Somali, and by the aridity of the desert country 
north of the Tana River. Southwards the Masai might have 
carried their raids towards Tanganyika and Nyasa, but they 
encountered a tribe as warlike as themselves — the Wa-hehe, 
wdio had been virilised by a slight intermixture of Zulu blood, 
the result of a celebrated return to Central Africa on the part 
of a small section of the Zulu people in the first decades of the 
nineteenth century. The Masai probably reached their apogee 
about 1880. Since that time they have greatly declined in num- 
bers, power, and pugnacity, owing to the repeated cattle 
plagues that swept down through Eastern Africa and destroyed 
so large a proportion of the cattle, which to the pastoral Masai 
were the one source of food." 2 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. ''The true Masai as a race are 
tall, w T ell-made people, slender and lissom, with no exaggerated 
muscular development, and little or no tendency to corpulence. 
They are long limbed, and the feet and hands are relatively 
greater than among Europeans, though the feet are smaller and 
better formed than among the Bantu Negroes. They have no 
marked prognathism, and the nose is sometimes almost Cau- 
casian in shape, with a well-developed bridge and finely cut 
nostrils. The chin is well formed, and the cheek-bones are not 
ordinarily as bulging as in the Nilotic Negro. The lips are 
sometimes prominent and much everted. The front teeth in 
the upper jaw T are long, and are occasionally separated one 
from the other by a small space. The gum is often visible 
when the lips open, and the front teeth stick out. The mouth, 

1 H. H. Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 796 ft. C. Eliot, " The East African 

Protectorate," pp. 134-135. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 800. 

[57] 



in fact, is the least pleasant feature in the face of a Masai, the 
rest of whose face is sometimes modelled on quite a Caucasian 
plan. Almost all the men and most of the women knock out 
the two lower incisor teeth. Mr. Sidney Hinde states that the 
reason given by the Masai for this practice is that tetanus 
was once a scourge amongst them, and that it was found to be 
a comparatively simple matter to feed a man suffering from 
lockjaw if food could be introduced through the gap caused by 
taking out two of his lower incisor teeth. It may be this ex- 
planation has been invented recently to explain a very ancient 
custom inherited by the Masai from the Nilotic stock which was 
their origin ; for amongst these people the removal of the lower 
incisor teeth is a very common practice." 1 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. ' ' Neither the agricultural nor pas- 
toral Masai are hunters of game in the same sense as the other 
negro tribes of the Protectorate. The grown-up men never 
molest zebras, antelopes, or harmless wild beasts, though boys 
may sometimes capture the fawns of gazelles, and are also given 
to the shooting of birds with arrows, as birds' feathers are 
required for certain of their ceremonies or for the making of 
head-dresses or capes for the warriors." 2 

"When lions become a scourge in the neighbourhood of 
villages, or when young warriors require lion skins for their 
head-dresses, a party of warriors array themselves in their 
war-paint and sally forth to bring them to bag. The lions, 
having been marked down in a patch of grass, one party walks 
in deliberately to flush them, while others wait in the open and 
attack them with their spears. Occasionally the lions break 
back, and the manoeuvre has to be repeated. If a lion or lion- 
ess has been marked down, it very rarely escapes. In the case 
of a lion charging, the attackers stand absolutely still, since 
they maintain that a lion seldom or never charges home when 
any attempt at retreat means certain death. The only part of 
the skin used by the Masai is the mane, of which they make 
war head-dresses. Unlike most African races, they do not use 
the claws or teeth of lions as ornaments. ' ' 3 

' ' The pastoral Masai not only do not fish in any of the lakes 
and rivers, but they regard fish as a most unwholesome food. 
The agricultural Masai obtain fish by trapping and spearing, 
and eat it in much the same way as do their Bantu neighbours. 
The agricultural Masai also keep a few fowls, and eat them, 
together with their eggs; but fowls and eggs are absolutely 
eschewed by the pastoral Masai, who never keep this domestic 

bird. 

"The domestic animals of both divisions of this race are 
cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, and dogs. The cattle are of the 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 802-803. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 812. 

3 Hinde, " The Last of the Masai," pp. 83-84. 

[58] 



humped zebu type, and do not differ in any importanl resped 
from the other humped domestic cattle of Eastern Africa. As 
the mainstay of their existence, the pastoral Masai attach 
enormous importance to their herds of cattle; and these ani- 
mals, having been brought up from birth under the constanl 
handling of man, woman, and child, are extremely docile to 
their owners, with the sole exception of milk-giving. Here the 
Masai cow, as is so often the case among the domestic cattle of 
Africa, is capricious, and, from a European point of view, very 
tiresome. She will withhold her milk invariably if the calf 
is not present to her sight or sense of smell ; yet her senses are 
easily deceived, inasmuch as she will often yield milk when a 
stuffed calf is held before her, even if it be little more than the 
skin of the dead calf roughly filled .out with straw. The milk- 
ing of the cows is usually done by the women twice a day, and 
generally in a special building erected in the village — a build- 
ing in which the young calves are kept at night. In the 
warriors' villages, however, milking is sometimes done by the 
boys who herd the cattle ; and all Masai men are adepts at 
milking both cows and goats, for which reason they are much in 
request as herdsmen in the employ of Europeans." 1 

"A barren cow is not an infrequent occurrence in the 
Masai herds, and such animals are selected for fattening and 
slaughter, as their meat is considered to be better eating than 
that of the bullocks. The milk is generally kept in long, bottle- 
shaped gourds with leather covers. Milk is alw r ays drunk 
fresh, and the gourds that contain it are carefully cleaned with 
burning grass or with a slight acrid liquid made from the 
leaves of a sage-plant. These methods of cleaning the gourd 
sometimes impart a flavor to the milk not altogether agreeable 
to the European palate. The cattle are always branded with 
some mark peculiar to the OAvner, who may also cut their ears 
in some special way so that the beast may be easily recognized 
as his own property. After coming back from the pasture the 
cattle are carefully examined, generally in close contact with 
a large smoky fire, so that the ticks may be removed from their 
bodies. The cattle are perfectly amenable to small boys, who 
usually act as cowherds."- However, despite this docility, the 
herds of Masai cattle are "well able to protect themselves in 
daylight on the open plains, and a young lion, leopard, or 
hyena has small chance of escape if he approaches a herd too 
closely. The whole herd will charge together, leaving nothing 
in their rear but a shapeless pulp to represent their overbold 
enemy. ' ' 3 

FOOD. ''The food of the pastoral Masai varies according 
to the sex and status of the individual. Women and old men 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 812-813. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 814. 

3 C. Eliot, " The East African Protectorate," pp. 76-77. 

[59] 



obtain by barter flour and perhaps beans and green stuff. The 
young warriors subsist on nothing but milk, blood, and meat. 
The blood they obtain by regularly bleeding their cattle. The 
oxen are bled in the following manner : A leather ligature is 
tied tightly around the throat. Below this bandage an arrow 
is shot in by a warrior, and that shaft is generally blocked so 
that the arrow-head cannot penetrate far beyond the vein. 
The arrow is pulled out and the blood gushes forth. When 
enough blood has been collected in vessels, the ligature is re- 
moved and the orifice of the vein is stopped up by a paste of 
cow-dung and dust. The frothing blood is greedily drunk, and 
is the only; way in which the Masai warrior obtains the salt 
necessary to his well-being.. Cows' blood is often thought to be 
(and no doubt is), a cure for dysentery. Masai warriors may 
eat the flesh of oxen, sheep, goats, or eland. This meat is 
usually boiled in an earthenware pot, and sometimes medicine 
derived from herbs is mixed with it. The Masai women and old 
married men eat pretty much what they like, and are allowed 
to smoke tobacco ; but during pregnancy the women rarely 
touch meat, consuming at that time enormous quantities of 
butter and milk. They also, when in this condition, eat fat, 
and believe that these oily substances will lubricate the pas- 
sages and make delivery easier. Honey is eaten by every one 
who can get it. By mixing a little water with the honey an 
intoxicating mead is made, which is much drunk by the old 
men. 

"The foregoing remarks about food apply mainly to the 
pastoral Masai; the agricultural section does not hold quite so 
rigidly to its special observances for the food of the young 
men as distinguished from that of the elders or the women; 
and as these people are industrious agriculturists and rear large 
crops of grain, pumpkins, and beans, their diet is largely of 
vegetable substances, though they are as fond of meat as their 
pastoral kinsmen and enemies." 1 

WEAPONS. ' ' The weapons of the Masai consist of spears 
and shields, bows and arrows, knobkerries, and swords from a 
foot to eighteen inches long. The swords, which are of a 
peculiar shape, like long and slender leaves — very narrow to- 
wards the hilt or handle and at their broadest close to the tip — 
are called ' sime, ' and are of widespread use throughout North- 
Eastern Africa, where the tribes are of the same stock or have 
come under the influence of the Nilotic and Masai peoples. The 
spear varies in shape and size. There is a very short, broad- 
bladed type, which is generally carried by the youths. The 
warriors among the Masai in the Rift Valley and elsewhere in 
the Uganda Protectorate and the adjoining parts of British 
East Africa carry a spear with an extremely long and narrow 
blade. The head may be fully three feet long. When it is not 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 818-819. 

[60] 



carried for use, the tip of the blade is generally provided with 
a small cap ornamented with a tuft of black feathers. The 
sword is worn usually girt over the right thigh in a scabbard 
of leather. The knobkerry is generally twisted in the same 
leather belt worn round the abdomen. Hows and arrows are 
more in use by the agricultural Masai; amongst the pastoral 
people they are relegated to the boys, who use a smaller bow 
and arrow for shooting birds. The Masai shield is very nearly 
an oval. It is made of ox hide or the skin of the buffalo. A 
piece of wood like the hooping of a cask, about an inch wide, is 
sewn very tightly round the edge of the oval piece of leather, 
while down the centre of the inside of the shield runs a broad 
lath of wood. This in the middle is detached from the concave 
surface, leaving a hollow between, through which the hand of 
the warrior can be passed. Nearly all Masai shields are 
painted; perhaps in the case of some of the agricultural Masai 
the leather surface is left uncovered with colour. The colours 
used in painting these shields are red and white (made from 
ferruginous clay and kaolin), and black (charcoal), and some- 
times blue or yellowish brown, the source of these pigments 
being unknown to me. The designs on the shields are most 
varied, and each clan or tribal division has its own." 1 

HOUSES AND VILLAGES. "The dwellings of the Masai 
are of two very distinct kinds. The agricultural Masai who 
are still to be found about Elgon and the south end of Baringo 
(there are other relics of them in East Africa, at Taveita, etc.), 
build houses very like those of their Bantu neighbors — round 
huts made with walls of reeds or sticks, surmounted by a 
conical, grass-thatched roof. The cattle-keeping Masai, on the 
contrary, build dwellings of quite peculiar construction, unlike 
those of any other Negro tribe. These are low, continuous 
houses (not more than six feet in height), which may go round 
or nearly round the enclosure of the settlement. They are flat- 
roofed, and are built of framework of stocks with strong par- 
titions dividing the continuous structure into separate com- 
partments which are separate dwellings, each furnished with a 
low, oblong door. A good deal of brushwood is worked into the 
sides and roofs of these rows of houses to make a foundation 
which will retain the plaster of mud and cow-dung which is 
next applied. The mud and cow-dung is thickly laid on the flat 
roofs, and is not usually permeated by the rain. In the villages 
of the agricultural Masai there are, in addition to the houses, 
numerous granaries holding supplies of corn and beans. The 
Avails of these granaries are plastered with mud and cow-dung. 
The villages of both sections of the Masai are surrounded by 
fences. In the case of the agricultural Masai these are strong 
palisades with openings at intervals that are carefully guarded 
by doors made of huge hewn planks. With the pastoral Masai 
'Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 819-820-821. 

[61] 



the hedge surrounding the settlement is of thorn bushes, and is 
merely arranged so as to keep off wild beasts, the pastoral 
Masai not having hitherto had occasion to fear the attacks of 
their fellow-men. Inside the villages there are one or more 
cattle kraals surrounded by independent hedges of thorns or 
sticks, and their enclosures are fenced in for sheep and goats. 
Inside the continuous houses of the pastoral Masai beds are 
made of brushwood neatly staked and covered with skins. The 
fireplace is simply a circle of stones. At night skins are hung 
over the doorway (all the doorways in the houses of the pastor- 
al Masai are on the inner side of the circle made by the con- 
tinuous houses) in order to keep out the cold night air. The 
only furniture in the huts besides cooking-pots and skins are 
long gourds used as milk vessels, half-gourds which are cups, 
and small three-legged stools cut out of a single block of hard 
wood and used by the elder men to sit on. 

"The agricultural Masai live in their villages permanently. 
The pastoral Masai are inclined towards a semi-nomad exist- 
ence, no doubt with the intention of seeking fresh pasture for 
their cattle. They generally, however, range within certain 
prescribed districts. They will often abandon a settlement for 
a time, and have no objection to other persons using it in their 
absence, providing they are ready to evacuate it without having 
done any harm on the return of the original owners. Formerly 
the warriors among the pastoral Masai, from the time they 
reached the age of puberty until they retired from the warrior 
existence and became married men, lived in villages by them- 
selves with their mothers and sweethearts. The mothers kept 
house for them, and the young unmarried women attended to 
very little else but pleasure, though they superintended the 
young calves which were left behind in the settlement when the 
cattle were driven out every morning to pasture. A few boys 
would hang about these warrior villages, their presence being 
tolerated for their usefulness in herding cattle and milking 
cows and goats. With the general break-up of the Masai sys- 
tem of pastoral life which has come about through the repeated 
cattle plagues and the European administration of their coun- 
try, they are rapidly beginning to live more after the normal 
negro fashion, in villages inhabited alike by married and un- 
married men, girls and married women. Every village elects a 
headman, who settles all disputes and acts as leader of the 
warriors in case of any fighting." 1 

INDUSTRIES. The Masai have few industries but of these 
the most important is the smelting and forging of iron. This 
metal, in the form of sand or gravel, is found in the river beds, 
though it is sometimes dug for in the alluvial deposits of old 
water courses. ' ' The sand is picked and cleaned by the women 
until it is fairly pure, when it is mixed with a certain amount 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 808, 810. 

[62] 



of cla3 r . It is then spread on a skin on the floor of the furnace, 
and juniper logs (the only fuel used in the process), are placed 
over the pile of clay. A number of men, varying from ten to 
fifty according to the size of the furnace, keep up an incessant 
blast, with bellows, for four days, while other men replenish 
the fire with fuel, throwing the logs in at the top. The blast 
is kept constant the whole time by relays of blowers. 

' ' The furnace itself is made of clay, and is usually from ten 
to twelve feet in diameter. It is circular in shape, and open at 
the top, the walls being from four to five feet high, and inclin- 
ing slightly inward at the apex. Apertures, about a foot 
apart, are left close to the ground, through which the nozzles 
of the bellows conduct the air into the furnace. 

"After the four-days blast, two days are allowed for the 
fire to burn out and the furnace to cool. On the third day the 
men entitled to metal draw it to the openings of the furnace 
with long iron tongs. These tongs are made of one piece of 
iron, bent in the middle with a couple of rings passed over the 
bend to prevent them from opening wider than is required. 
Before the metal is taken out of the furnace, a cow is killed 
close b} r , and a small quantity of fat is taken from the dewlap 
and thrown on to the ashes. As soon as the warm ashes have 
absorbed this fat, a mixture of milk and water is poured into 
the furnace, and all the workers feast on the cow. Until this 
ceremony has been completed the iron is not removed. No 
other process is employed with this pig-iron before it is ham- 
mered out for use in the shape of ornaments or weapons. The 
Elgunoni do not employ any form of casting. A piece of iron 
is placed, with iron tongs similar to those used in the furnaces, 
on a particular kind of hard, but not too brittle, stone : this is 
broken into the required size, and then heated in a charcoal 
fire blown by bellows. The iron is hammered into shape on 
the stone by an oval handleless iron hammer sized according 
to the special use it is required for. A tool resembling a cold 
chisel is also used. The wood of which the bellows are made 
is olan exceedingly hard nature. A suitable piece of the butt 
of a tree is hollowed out, to the inside of which a goat's skin 
is fastened about halfway down, the rest of the skin being 
drawn ^at towards the top. A nozzle is fixed to the lower part 
of the timber drum, communicating with the interior, and from 
this nozzle a wet clay pipe carries the air to the fire. In the 
centre of the upper part of the goatskin a small hole is left, 
and the bellows are blown by alternately raising and pressing 
the skin inside the drum. When raising the skin the hole is 
left open, but when depressing it the hole is closed with the 
worker's thumb. The whole process in iron work lasts from 
one to three months, and the same furnace is repaired when 
required for use the following year. 

"Earthenware is only used by the Masai in the shape of 

[63] 



cooking-pots. The clay employed for their making is found 
in certain river beds, and is of a bright red colour : this is 
pounded with stones, and mixed with water, until the paste 
has been worked to an adequately fine grain and consistency, 
when it is modelled by hand, with the help of a gourd split in 
half. In rare instances potters can throw it without the gourd. 
When the vessels are sufficiently dry, a small fire of grass and 
twigs is made, and the pots, filled with green grass, are placed 
in a circle round the central fire. Another fire of grass and 
twigs, completely covering the pots," is kept burning for 
twenty-four hours, care being taken that excessive heat is not 
developed. On removal from the fire the pots are left for a day 
exposed to the atmosphere, after which they are greased, both 
inside and outside, with animal fat and allowed to soak : they 
are then ready for use. The cooking utensils vary from eight 
to twenty inches in height, and from four to twelve inches in 
diameter. Occasionally small handles are attached to the 
edges near the top : these are, however, only large enough to 
allow the passing of a piece of cord through them to facilitate 
carrying. Large pots are not placed over the fire when in use : 
during cooking operations one side is exposed to the fire, and 
the pot is constantly turned." 1 

MARRIAGE AND POSITION OF WOMEN. "The condi- 
tion of women among the Masai offers another curious analogy 
to the Zulus. It is a condition which is not by any means 
peculiar to the Masai, as was thought by earlier travellers, but 
is frequently met with in other negro races showing no near 
kinship to this people. The Masai warrior is not allowed by 
the elders of his tribe to marry until he has reached about 
thirty years of age, and has accumulated a fair amount of 
property, or else has so distinguished himself by his bravery as 
to merit an early retirement. But from the time of his reaching 
puberty till the date at which he is able to marry he is by no 
means willing to live without the solace of female companion- 
ship. The young warrior, soon after attaining manhood (when 
the hair of his head, from having been previously close shaven, 
is now allowed to grow until it can be trained into pigtails), 
goes round the villages of the married people and selects one 
or two little girls of from eight to thirteen years old. To the 
mothers of the chosen damsels he makes numerous small 
presents, but does not give cattle or sheep, these being re- 
served for the marriage gift. The mother raises little or no 
objection to his proposition if the girls like him, and he then 
carries off one, two, or it may be three, to the warriors ' village 
or settlement." 2 When a girl is nearing womanhood, she 
leaves the warrior and goes back to her mother. If by chance 
a girl remains with the man and bears him a child, he may 
have to support it and may decide eventually to marry the girl. 

1 Hinde, pp. 86, 87, 88. 

3 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 822-824. 

[64] 



"The young girls who Live in the warriors' settlements 
have as agreeable a time of it as can be provided in Masai 
society. They are supplied with food; the mothers of the 
young men do all the cooking, and the girls themselves spend 
their time in dancing, singing, adorning themselves, and mak- 
ing love. 

"After a woman is married — that is to say, is regularly 
bought by her husband — she is supposed to remain faithful to 
him, though it is not at all infrequent that a Masai may sanc- 
tion her going with any man. especially if he be a friend or a 
guest. If unfaithful without permission, she might in old 
times have been clubbed to death, but as a general rule a breach 
of the marriage covenant is atonetl for by a payment on the 
part of the adulterer. One way and another, by custom and by 
disposition, it must, I think, be stated that the Masai women 
are very immoral. 

' ' Marriage is simply the selection of a likely girl by a retir- 
ing warrior, and the handing over to her father of a number 
of cows, bullocks, goats, sheep, and small additional gifts of 
honey, goat skins, and perhaps iron wire. After a girl is 
married she may not return to her father's village unless ac- 
companied by her husband.'" 1 

"As young married women their sole duties consist in tend- 
ing their children and cooking the food for their household. 
This life continues until they are past the age of child-bearing. 
It is then that their term of hardship begins, for all work of 
a strenuous nature is relegated to the old women. They collect 
the firewood, build the villages (together with the bomas that 
surround them), and, in common with the donkeys, carry the 
loads when a village is being moved. Their capacity for work 
is extraordinary, and they carry sixty-pound weights with 
ease. The night guards in the manyattas are also kept by them. 
They are fed and paid for their work, and a woman's children 
invariably contribute what is necessary in the w T ay of food and 
accommodation, but nothing more. In spite of this she works 
until she is quite decrepit : as long as she can crawl about she 
continues her labours, and death is the only release she can 
hope for. These old women are usually of emaciated and in- 
ordinately ugly appearance, and, as a result of their badly- 
nourished condition, ulcers and other affections of this des- 
cription are prevalent among them. Yet, notwithstanding the 
toil and privation to which they are subjected, they are almost 
invariably lively and good-tempered, and, incredible as it 
seems, appear to enjoy existence. They in no way resent being 
compelled to work, and, since they are not actively ill treated, 
they go on contentedly to the end." 2 

SELF GRATIFICATION. "Dancing among the Masai 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 824-825. 

2 Hinde, pp. 67-68. 

[65] 



does not differ markedly from this exercise and ritual in other 
races of Central Africa. There is the war-dance of the warriors 
when returning from a successful expedition. This is, of 
course, a mimic Avarfare, sometimes most amusing and interest- 
ing to the spectator. The men will at times become so excited 
that the sham fight threatens to degenerate into an angry 
scuffle. There are dances of a somewhat indelicate nature 
which precede the circumcision ceremonies of boys and girls, 
and dances which accompany the formal naming of a child. 
Barren women, or women who have not succeeded in having 
children, paint their faces with pipeclay in the most hideous 
fashion till they look like skulls, arm themselves with long 
sticks, and dance before a medicine man, or a big chief reputed 
to be a medicine man, in order that his remedies may result in 
the longed-for child. These dances are almost invariably ac- 
companied by songs, and, in fact, one word in the Masai 
language — ' os-singoloi '■ — means ' song-dance. ' 

''As regards music, they have no musical instruments ex- 
cept drums. They are very fond of singing, and the voices of 
the men occasionally are a high and agreeable tenor ; but more 
often, like most Africans, the men sing in a disagreeable fal- 
setto. The women's voices, though powerful, are extremely 
shrill — shriller than the highest soprano that ever made me 
shudder in a European opera-house. It struck me that the 
Masai women had extraordinary range of compass. They were 
able to produce very deep contralto notes as easily as an upper 
C. Singing usually means a chosen songster or songstress, yell- 
ing a solo at the top of his or her voice, and being accompanied 
by a chorus of men or maidens, women and men often singing 
together. The chorus does not usually sing the same air as the 
soloist, but an antistrophe. "* 

BODY DECORATIONS. "All the hair of the face and 
body is plucked out in both sexes by means of iron tweezers, 
so that no male Masai is ever seen with beard and moustache. 
The hair of the head is shaved by the women, and by the 
married men who have ceased to be warriors. It is even 
removed in the same way from the heads of children ; but when 
a Masai youth has reached puberty, and is about to become a 
warrior, he allows the hair of his head to grow as long as it will. 
Tugging at the wool, and straightening it as far as he is able, 
he plaits into it twisted bast or thin strips of leather. ' In this 
way the hair, with its artificial accompaniments, is plaited into 
a number of wisps, and these, coated with red clay and mutton 
fat, are gathered into pigtails, or queues, the largest of which 
hangs down over the back, while another droops over the fore- 
head, and there may be one over each ear. The ends of these 
queues are tightly bound round with string, which, like all the 
rest of the coiffure, is thickly coated with grease and ochre. 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 833-834. 

[66] 



The whole of the body in the young warriors is constantly 
anointed with the same proportion of reddish clay and fat, with 
the result thai they have quite a raddled appearance, and look 
like statues in terra-cotta ; for everything about them may be 
coated with this preparation of a uniform yellowish red." 1 

"The Masai men do not mar or decorate their skins with 
patterns in scars or in tattooing; but 1 have noticed on the 
faces of the women in the Naivasha District that parallel lines 
are apparently burnt, on the skin around the eyes or on the 
forehead. I could not ascertain whether this was done with a 
red-hot wire or by some acrid juice. The scars had a bluish 
look, and were intended to enhance the brilliancy of the eye. 
The women ordinarily remove the eyelashes and the hair from 
the eyebrows. In both sexes the ears are terribly deformed 
by piercing the lobe at an early age and inserting through the 
hole larger and larger discs or rounded pieces of wood*. These 
are gradually increased in size until the lobe becomes a great 
loop of leathery skin. To this loop they attach ear-rings of 
tine iron chain or European nails and screws, or depending 
coils of iron wire like catherine-wheels. The ear is also pierced 
in the upper part of the conch, near what is called 'Darwin's 
point. ' From this hole also may depend loops of fine iron chain 
or strings of beads. The men may wear bead necklaces and bead 
armlets. On the upper part of the left arm, just below the 
deltoid muscle, is a tight armlet of wood, which grips the flesh, 
and is furnished with two upright projections. A string of 
charms, which may be pieces of smooth stone or of hard, 
smooth wood, of irregular size, is generally worn round the 
2ieck by the men, who may also have a girdle round the waist 
composed of a string of beads with fine iron chains. Bracelets 
of iron wire or of ivory may also be worn by the men on the 
wrists. 

"As regards clothing, the two sexes differ considerably. 
Women from girlhood to old age are usually clothed most 
scrupulously, though it is not considered improper to expose 
the bosom. Their garments were formerly dressed hides which 
hung from the neck down to the knees, with a kind of leather 
petticoat underneath. Nowadays many of the women dispense 
with leather and wear voluminous pieces of calico from the 
coast. Old men generally wear a skin or a cloth cape over 
the shoulders. Hitherto men, old and young, of the Masai tribe 
have been absolutely indifferent as to whether such covering 
as they wore answered purposes of decency. They might even 
be styled ostentatiously naked in this respect, though I have 
never known them to be guilty of any gesture of deliberate in- 
delicacy. Young warriors going to battle swathe round their 
waists as many yards of red calico as they can get hold of, and 
will further throw pieces of calico over their shoulders as capes. 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 803-804. 

[67] 



They also wear huge mantles of birds' feathers, in shape and 
volume like the fur capes worn by coachmen in cold weather. 
A great circle of ostrich plumes is often worn round the face. 
When decorated for warfare, they tie fringes of long white 
hair tightly below the knee, generally on one leg — the left. 
This white hair is either derived from goats or from the skin 
of the colobus monkey. Some of the eastern Masai make hand- 
some capes of the black and white colobus fur, which are worn 
over the chest. Unmarried girls may wear a few bracelets, but 
as soon as a young Masai woman, or 'dito,' is about to marry, 
she has coils of thick iron wire wound round her legs. She 
will also wear armlets and bracelets of this same wire, and per- 
haps an additional armlet or two of ivory. Huge coils of the 
same thick iron wire may be worn round the neck in addition 
to the 'catherine-wheel' ornaments and uncounted strings of 
beads. Or she may have round her neck a great fringe of 
leather thongs, to which are fastened large beads." 1 

RELIGION. The religious ideas of the Masai are vague 
and very little has been developed in the way of a cultus or 
mythology. There is a sky god who is invoked when rain is 
needed for the crops. 

' ' The Masai, agricultural and pastoral, deal with their dead 
in a very summary manner. Unless the dead person is a male 
and a chief, the corpse is simply carried to a short distance from 
the village, and left on the ground to be devoured by hyenas, 
jackals, and vultures. The constant presence of hyenas and 
the small Neophron and Necrosyrtes, and the large Otogyps 
vultures round the Masai kraals is encouraged by this practice, 
and the Masai never actively interfere with these scavengers, 
unless a hyena should attempt — as they sometimes do — to enter 
a village and carry off live-stock or children. Important 
chiefs, however, are buried, and a year after the burial the 
eldest son or the appointed successor of the chief carefully re- 
moves the skull of the deceased, making at the same time a 
sacrifice and a libation with the blood of a goat, some milk, and 
some honey. The skull is then carefully secreted by the son, 
whose possession of it is understood to confirm him in power, 
and to impart to him some of the wisdom of his predecessor. 
In several parts of the Rift Valley cairns of stones meet the 
eye. They mark the burial-places of dead chiefs, though there 
is probably no supreme chief of the Masai race buried in that 
direction." 2 

"The Masai do not believe in a future life for women or 
common people. Only chiefs and influential head-men possess 
any life beyond the grave. It is thought that some of their 
more notable ancestors return to earth in the shape of snakes — 
either pythons or cobras. The tribal snakes of the Masai must 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 804-805-806-808. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 827-828. 

[68] 



be black because they themselves arc dark skinned. They be- 
lieve thai white snakes look after the welfare of Europeans. 
These snakes certainly live in a half-tamed state in the vicinity 
of large Masai villages, generally in holes or crevices. They 
are supposed never to bite a member of the (dan which they 
protect; but they arc ready to kill the enemies of that clan 
and their cattle. When a Masai marries, his wife has to be in- 
troduced to the tutelary snake of the clan and rigorously 
ordered to recognize it and never to harm it. Even the children 
are taught to respect these reptiles. These snakes sometimes 
take up their abode near water-holes, which, it is supposed, they 
will defend against unlawful use on the part of strangers. The 
fetish snake is often consulted by-people in perplexity, though 
what replies it is able to give must be left to the imagination. 
The snakes are, however, really regarded with implicit belief 
as being the form in Avhich renowned ancestors have returned 
to this mundane existence. ' " l 

"Another superstitious custom to which the Masai formerly 
attached much importance was the act of spitting. In marked 
contradistinction to the prejudice against expectoration as a 
polite custom in European societies, not only amongst the 
Masai, but in the allied Nandi and Suk peoples, to spit at a 
person is a very great compliment. The earlier travellers in 
Masailand were astonished, when making friendship with old 
Masai chiefs and head-men, to be constantly spat at. When 
I entered the Uganda Protectorate and met the Masai of the 
Rift Valley for the first time, every man, before extending his 
hand to me, would spit on the palm. When they came into my 
temporary house at Naivasha Fort they would spit to the north, 
east, south, and west before entering the house. Every un- 
known object which they regarded with reverence, such as a 
passing train, is spat at. Newly born children are spat on by 
every one wdio sees them. They are, of course, being laughed 
out of the custom now by the Swahilis and Indian coolies and 
the Europeans ; and it must be admitted that, however charm- 
ing a race the Masai are in many respects, they will lose none 
of their inherent charm by abandoning a practice which, except 
in parts of America and Southern Europe, is very justly re- 
garded with disgust." 2 

NAME. "A dead man is never referred to by name, 
if possible. It is considered so unlucky to do this that 
the action is equivalent to an intentional desire to bring 
harm on the relatives of the deceased. If any reference 
must be made to a dead person, it is generally by 
means of a roundabout description, or by such terms 
as 'my brother,' 'my father,' 'my uncle,' 'my sister.' Hus- 
bands and wives may with less disastrous consequences 



1 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 832. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 833. 



[69] 



refer to their dead partners by name, though even this 
is done in a whisper and with reluctance. Amongst the living 
there is a very intricate ceremony on the subject of addressing 
by name, and a Masai of good manners would feel quite at 
home in the British House of Commons, where much the same 
prejudice prevails. If you wish to get at the real name borne 
by a Masai man, it is advisable to ask one of his friends stand- 
ing by, who in reply, will probably give you the name of the 
man's mother, if he be an eldest son and unmarried, for in 
such case it must be identical with the man's own name. It is 
not. considered unlucky if a person in speaking to you mentions 
your name in your presence ; it is the employment of the name 
in direct address which ,is thought to bring ill luck. Any one 
who is asked abruptly for his name probably gives that of his 
father, which may, of course, also be his. A child would never 
address his father or mother by name, but would call them 
'father' or 'mother.' A married man would also not call to 
his father- and mother-in-law by their names, but would ad- 
dress them by an honorific title ; a woman would simply call her 
husband's parents 'father' and 'mother.' Boys may address 
other boys and young girls by their names ; but they must 
speak to all the warriors as 'El Morran, ' married or old women 
as 'Koko,' and old married men as 'Baba.' Women generally 
address old or married men of any importance as '01 Baiyan' 
('Elder'). A married man would probably call out to a woman, 
not by name, but address her as 'En gitok' ('Woman'). If 
a Masai bears the same name as a member of his tribe who dies, 
he may change his own name to avoid ill luck." 1 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. Usually the chief ruler 
of the Masai is a powerful "medicine man." He is credited 
with second sight, which he can invoke at will and transmit 
to his heirs through the agency of a certain medicine, the in- 
gredients of which are known only to the royal family. 

"Once or twice during each year the reigning chief in- 
vokes this power, and usually remains under its influence for 
several days together, the taking of the medicine being in- 
variably followed by a drinking bout. On recovering from the 
effects of this, he makes known to his followers the intimation 
regarding the future revealed to him during the influence of 
the royal medicine. 

"Before a raid is undertaken the power is invoked, and 
the prophet then directs his warriors where and how to attack, 
and in what places the cattle are to be found. By some ex- 
traordinary means — possibly not unconnected with the secret 
service system, which is carried to great perfection among 
the Masai — these predictions are almost invariably correct." 2 

"In each village a man is selected as chief (legooran), 

1 Johnston, Vol. II, pp. 826-827. 

2 Hinde, pp. 23-24. 

[70] 



-whose function it is to settle all difficulties and disputes, and 
to Lead his followers into battle. This chief may be an elder, 
though more frequently he is a senior warrior of greater ex- 
perience than his associates.'' 1 

. As has been mentioned here before, the chief occupations 
of the Masai are cattle raising- and fighting. The latter is en- 
gaged in by most of the young men. "In former days, before 
the Masai warriors, called 'El Morran, ' started on an ex- 
pedition, they would fortify their courage with a war medicine, 
which was said to be the bark of Acacia verrugosa. This bark, 
when chewed, would make them either frantic or stupified, 
thus lulling any apprehensions. Once on the war-path, how- 
ever, they were invariably brave, .as public opinion would prob- 
ably visit any sign of cowardice with execution. The Masai 
warriors would travel as much as fifty miles a day at a constant 
trot. In old days they thought nothing of going 300 miles — 
even 500 miles — to attack a people or a district which was sup- 
posed to be rich in cattle. They would sometimes travel at 
night as Avell as in the daytime, but their favourite time of 
attack was just at dawn. In the first ardour of battle they 
would slay every man and boy with their huge spears, but 
women were very rarely killed. It is stated that the Masai 
have generally been in the habit of Avarning their enemies be- 
fore making an attack on them, but I certainly remember my- 
self in 1884 having reported to me a great many instances of 
the Masai round Kilimanjaro taking or attempting to take 
Bantu villages wholly by surprise. No doubt in the case of 
tributary people a warning would be sent first that the overdue 
tributes must be paid up, and in the event of this notice re- 
maining unheeded the warriors would descend on the rebellious 
vassal." 2 

1 Hinde, p. 58. 

2 Johnston, Vol. II, p. 822. 



[711 



CHAPTER VIII. 



AUSTRALIANS. 

ENVIRONMENT. Australia is an island with an area of 
about 3,000,000 square miles lying between the parallels 10 de- 
grees 39 minutes and 39 degrees 11| minutes South. Its great- 
est length is 2,400 miles from East to West, and its greatest 
breadth 1,971 miles from North to South. The coast line is 
comparatively regular being only 8,850 miles in length. The 
land mass rises to a mean height much less than that of any 
other continent. 

The contour of Australia may be described as follows. On 
the East a low, fertile coastal plain which rises sharply to a 
mountain range about 40 miles from the sea. West of these 
mountains are the great plains covering an area of about 500,- 
000 square miles. These plains gradually rise to the low 
steppes which are 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea. A further 
rise through the high steppes leads to the mountains of the 
West coast, while beyond these is a low coastal plain. 

The rivers of Australia are of little use for navigation for 
they have much water during the wet season and almost none 
during the rest of the year. Those along the East coast have 
short rapid courses. The two most important rivers of Austra- 
lia, the Murray and the Darling, flow into Encounter Bay, 
South Australia. The discharge of the Darling does not 
amount to more than 10 per cent, of the rainfall on its drainage 
area. Hence, about 90 per cent, must evaporate and sink into 
the soil. 

CLIMATE. "The Australian continent extending over 28 
degrees of latitude, might be expected to show a considerable 
diversity of climate. In reality, however, it experiences fewer 
climatic variations than the other great continents, owing to 
its distance (28 degrees) from the Antartic circle and (11 de- 
grees) from the equator. There is, besides, a powerful de- 
termining cause in the uniform character and undivided extent 
of its dry interior. The plains and steppes already described 
lie either within or close to the tropics. They present to the 
fierce play of the sun almost a level surface, so that during the 
day that surface becomes intensely heated and at night gives 
off its heat by radiation. Ordinarily the alternate expansion 
and contraction of the atmosphere, which takes place under 
such circumstances, would draw in a supply of moisture from 
the ocean, but the heated interior, covering some 900,000 square 
miles, is so immense, that the moist air from the ocean does 
not come in sufficient supply, nor are there mountain chains to 

[72] 



intercept the clouds which from time to time are formed; so 
that two-fifths of Australia, comprising a region stretching 
from the Australian Bight to 20 degrees S. and from 117 de- 
crees to 142 degrees E., received less than an average of 10 
inches of rain throughout the year, and a considerable portion 
of this region has less than 5 inches." 1 

The prevailing winds of Australia are the southeast trades 
which, because of the mountain range, deposit most of their 
moisture on the east coast. By the time they reach the central 
and western part of the country, they are devoid of all mois- 
ture. Hence, as one moves inland from the eastern range of 
mountains, the land becomes dryer and dryer, the grass thins 
away into isolated tufts, and finally barren rocks appear, or the 
land becomes impregnated with salt. 

The northern portion of Australia is watered by the mon- 
soons and for that reason is much more fertile than the western 
or southern parts of the country. This region, lying as it does 
entirely in the tropics, has a very slight range of temperature 
for the year. 

In the south of Australia the cold months of June, July, and 
August have an average temperature of 58 degrees with almost 
no snow and very little ice. The summer months are very 
dry with the thermometer frequently standing at 100 degrees 
in the shade. 

HISTORY. "The origin of the natives of Australia pre- 
sents a difficult problem. The chief difficulty in deciding their 
ethnical relations is their remarkable physical difference from 
the neighboring peoples. And if one turns from physical cri- 
teria to their manners and customs it is only to find fresh evi- 
dence of their isolation. While their neighbors, the Malays, 
Papuans and Polynesians, all cultivate the soil, and build sub- 
stantial huts and houses, the Australian natives do neither. 
Pottery, common to Malays and Papuans, the bows and arrows 
of the latter, and the elaborate canoes of all three races, are un- 
known to the Australians. They then must be considered as 
representing an extremely primitive type of mankind, and it is 
necessary to look far afield for their prehistoric home. 

' ' Wherever they came from, there is abundant evidence that 
their first occupation of the Australian continent must have 
been at a time so remote as to permit of no traditions. No 
record, no folk tales, as in the case of the Maoris of New Zea- 
land, of their migration, are preserved by the Australians. 
True, there are legends and tales of tribal migrations and early 
tribal history, but nothing, as A. W. Howitt points out, which 
can be twisted into referring even indirectly to their first ar- 
rival. It is almost incredible that there should be none, if the 
date of their arrival is to be reckoned as only dating back some 

1 Encycl. Brit, under Australia, p. 945. 

[73] 



centuries. Again, while they differ physically from neighbor- 
ing races, while there is practically nothing in common between 
them and the Malays, the Polynesians, or the Papuan Melane- 
sians, they agree in type so closely among themselves that they 
must be regarded as forming one race. Yet it is noteworthy 
that the languages of their several tribes are different. The 
occurrence of a large number of roots proves them to be de- 
rived from one source, but the great variety of dialects — some- 
times, unintelligible between tribes separated by only a few 
miles — cannot be explained except by supposing a vast period 
to have elapsed since their first settlement. There is evidence 
in the language, too, which supports the physical separation 
from their New Zealand neighbors and, therefore, from the 
Polynesian family of races. The numerals in use were limited. 
In some tribes there were only three in use, in most four. For 
the number 'five' a word meaning 'many' was employed. The 
linguistic poverty proves that the Australian tongue has no 
affinity to the Polynesian group of languages, where denary 
enumeration prevails : the nearest Polynesians, the Maoris, 
counting in thousands. Further evidence of the antiquity of 
Australian man is to be found in the strict observance of tribal 
boundaries, which would seem to show that the tribes must 
have been settled a long time in one place." 1 

PHYSIQUE. The people of Australia belong to the black 
race. Those living in the north are physically and intellect- 
ually better developed than those in the southeast and west. 
This is due largely to the character of the country in which 
they are living, for they are better able to pursue the struggle 
for existence, because of the more favorable climatic conditions, 
and are thus ahle to build up a better physique. The Austra- 
lians of the south and central portion are of medium stature, 
but very lean, owing to the bad nutrition. We see in them 
certain Malay characteristics in the straight rather woolly hair, 
and the prominent cheek bones ; the characteristics of the negro 
in the prominent eyebrows, the flat nose, the thick lips, the 
prognathous jaw and the dolichocephalic skull. A particular 
characteristic of the Australian is the ridge of the nose which 
is so deeply depressed that a line drawn from one eye to the 
other makes only a very slight curve. They have a large 
amount of hair on the head and on the body, and also a very 
full beard. The hair is so important a race characteristic that 
the taunt applied to European people, "You naked cheeks," is 
one of the challenges always taken up by the beardless youth 
among the south Australians. A beardless Australian is an 
isolated pathological accident. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. We cannot understand the life 
and the civilization of the Australians apart from their nomad- 

1 Encycl. Brit., pp. 954-955. 

[74] 



ism, to which all the natural conditions of the land contribute. 
At the bottom of it lies the deficiency of the water and the 
unequal distribution of the plant and animal food supplies. 
The dry season, which is often of long- duration, causes much 
of the country to be uninhabitable, so that the people are 
obliged to move into some more favorable quarter in order to 
secure the barest subsistence. Vegetable matter is often to be 
sought at great distances, while the animals avoid the dry 
regions almost as much as do the men. Thus it is that the food 
supply is the determining factor in the life of the Australians 
and because of its scarcity they are obliged to move from place 
to place. 

The people prefer an animal diet, but for much of the year 
they are forced to content themselves w r ith a vegetable one. 
Their food consists of fish, snakes, lizards, grubs of the beetle, 
birds' eggs, roots, bulbs and other vegetable matter, but the 
supply of these varies with different parts of the country. Of 
the larger animals, the kangaroo and the emu are preferred bj' 
the people. The people never under any conditions engage in 
agriculture or even cultivate the soil to the slightest degree. 

In hunting, the weapons they use are the boomerang, the 
hurling stick and the spear, and in war, the shield and the 
ax are added. The boomerang is a piece of wood two to three 
feet long, bent almost at right angles and with a twist in the 
surface. In the use of this weapon they become so skilful that 
they can throw it and have it almost return to their hand. 
With this weapon they are able to bring down flying birds and 
small animals at two hundred paces. If it strikes an object, it 
falls to the ground. An expert thrower can send it in any 
direction which he pleases. It is a very dangerous weapon of 
war for it is impossible to judge when it is seen in the air, how r 
far it w r ill go or where it will come down. 

The Australians have several very clever methods of catch- 
ing birds. A native will stretch himself out on a rock in the 
sun with a piece of meat in his hand. When a bird, attracted 
by the bait, make a swoop for it, the man seizes it by the leg. 
Water fowls are caught in a similar way. A man swims under 
water, and when, beneath the bird, grabs its leg, pulls it under, 
breaks its neck, and places it in his belt. 1 

The kangaroo is captured in wet weather with dogs, but 
usually nets are used into w T hich the animal is driven. An 
Australian will often stalk a kangaroo alone. "Starting on its 
recent tracks, he follows them until he comes in sight of it, 
using no concealment, he boldly heads for it and it scours 
away, followed by the hunter. This is repeated again and 
again until nightfall when the black lights a fire and sleeps on 
the track ; next day the chase recommences, till human per- 

1 N. W. Thomas, " Natives of Australia," p. 96. 

[75] 



tinacity has overcome the endurance of the quadruped, and it 
falls a victim to its pursuer." 

Before the animal is cooked, the tail sinews are drawn out 
and kept to be used in sewing cloaks or lashing spears. The 
chief method of cooking the kangaroo is to dig an oven in the 
sand, heat it thoroughly by means of hot stones, and then 
place the animal in it, skin and all. A slow fire is kept up all 
of the time, and when it is cooked the animal is taken out, laid 
on its back, its intestines taken out ; the body is then cut up 
and eaten. 

The preparation of food is of the crudest sort. Being en- 
tirely without pottery, they have only limited facilities for 
preparing the food. Boiling over a fire is unknown. Birds are 
generally cooked by plucking them and throwing them on the 
fire. If the natives wish to be more careful, they cover the bird 
with a coating of mud before putting it on the fire. It is then 
covered with hot ashes and left until thoroughly cooked. When 
the mud crust is taken off, the feathers come with it. Although 
only a small portion of their food is consumed raw, yet much 
of it is hardly warmed through before it is devoured. The 
pots and cups are made of shells, and drinking vessels are 
formed from the skulls of enemies made water-tight by gum. 
Tortoise shells and skins of animals are used for holding their 
various articles of food. 

The only domesticated animal which the Australians have 
is the dingo, or dog. 

CANNIBALISM. Cannibalism, although not universal 
among the Australians, is nevertheless practised to some extent. 
The motives of this are various. Some tribes go out on expe- 
ditions in order to steal fat people and, it is reported by Ratzel, 1 
that a man who is the lucky possessor of a fat wife never allows 
her to go out alone for fear that she will be captured and eaten 
by a neighboring tribe. Along the west coast where the na- 
tives have come in contact with the Europeans, cannibalism 
has practically died out, but even here it sometimes occurs 
when the food supply is scarce. Among the tribes of Central 
Australia the bodies of the dead are devoured in order to avoid 
the necessity of further mourning. 

HOUSES. The people in the south and southeast build no 
houses, for they do not stay in one place long enough to pay 
them for putting up permanent structures. In order to make 
a slight protection against the sun, the cold and the rain, they 
build rough "lean-to's" of bark or boughs. This affords little 
shelter, but the open side is turned away from the wind so 
that it protects the fire and enables them to get the heat with- 
out the smoke. In the north, however, they have huts made of 
interwoven twigs, plastered with clay and sod, which are large 

1 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. I, p. 362. 

[76] 



enough to hold ten people. In some parts of this tropical 
region they have large villages, which indicates a more settled 
mode of life. 

WAR. The Australians are a very warlike people, although 
the actual conflicts are not serious. The battles consist for the 
most part of yells and the hurling of approbrious epithets. 
When they have worked themselves up to a sufficiently high 
pitch of excitement, a spear is discharged. If the blood is 
drawn, the conflict is ended, for the honor of the tribe has been 
saved. 

MARRIAGE. The marriage system of the Australians is 
one of the most complicated found anywhere among the savage 
peoples of the world. It is based upon exogamy, that is, a man 
and woman must marry outside of their own totem group and 
into only certain others. The least trace of blood relationship, 
as they conceive of it, is a bar to marriage, and any couple 
entering such a union are put to death by their own people. A 
man is allowed as many wives as he can support, but as a rule, 
because of the poor condition of the country, a man is satisfied 
with one or two, although eases have been reported where men 
had eleven. "The process of acquiring a bride differs in dif- 
ferent tribes. She may be exchanged for a sister, the simplest 
and perhaps the commonest form ; she may be betrothed at, or 
even, provisionally, before birth, but this is usually part of a 
process of barter ; she may be abducted, either from an already 
existing, or a prospective husband, or from her relatives ; or 
she may be inherited from a brother or tribal kinsman." 1 

While marriage by capture does occur, and is the cause of a 
great many fights, yet it is not the common mode of securing a 
wife. In the southeast the man obtains the consent of a girl in a 
neighboring tribe and then elopes with her. They stay away 
for several days in order to escape, as they say, the pursuit of 
her tribesman. In New South Wales, although the consent of 
the girl may have been obtained and she is agreeable to the 
match, yet when the bridegroom and his friends go for her, she 
puts up a terrible fight and calls to her assistance, her friends. 
But the fight is a mere sham, a survival of a more serious ac- 
tion, still the girls would hate to give it up for it gives them the 
feeling of being of greater value. Frequently wives are pur- 
chased, and it is not an uncommon thing for the parents of the 
boy and girl to arrange a marriage even before the children are 
able to walk. If a man wushes to marry a girl, he approaches 
the one wdio gives her away, through an intermediary. The 
relations come together, bringing with them the girl. A torch 
light dance takes place for two nights and then the marriage is 
complete. If the bride is still very young, the husband rubs 
her over with fat to make her grow, and then returns her to 
her parents until she is older. 

1 Thomas, " Natives of Australia," p. 114. 

[771 



A married woman is the absolute property of her husband, 
and she is compelled to do all of the hard work, such as build- 
ing the houses, lighting and tending the fires and collecting 
the roots and other vegetable foods. Besides these duties, 
she must attend to the children, and this is a laborious task, 
for they are not weaned until they are three or four years old. 

INFANTICIDE. Infanticide is very common. A large 
number of children are put to death almost immediately after 
birth. This is accomplished either by thrusting a stick through 
the orifice of the ears into the skull, after which the body is 
burned, or by throttling and hitting on the head with a club. 
The causes for infanticide are various. If a child is born be- 
fore the next older is able to walk, it is put to death. An 
Australian mother can hardly take care of two very young 
children at the same time. All misshapen children are killed, 
one or both of a pair of twins, at least half of the children of 
white fathers, due, it is supposed to jealousy; a large number of 
female children ; and finally, children of marriages entered into 
unwillingly. Should, however, the parents decide that a child 
is to live, every possible care is given to it so that it may grow 
up as a strong member of the tribe. 

INITIATION OF THE BOYS. As soon as a boy is old enough 
to walk, his farther takes him on hunting and fishing expedi- 
tions and instructs him in all those things which a man should 
know about the pursuit of the necessities of life. 

Among the Australians, as among most savage peoples, 
when a boy reaches the age of puberty, the time has arrived for 
him to leave the company of women, with whom he has been 
living, and join himself to the men. Before he can do this, 
he must be taught many things, among them the secrets of the 
tribe or totem, into which he is to enter as a full-fledged mem- 
ber. In many cases these ceremonies are of a dramatic nature, 
especially in those communities where the totem holds a promi- 
nent place. As a rule, the rite of circumcision is performed, 
thus making him, as they think, a more fit member of society. 
These ceremonies start when a boy is ten or twelve years old 
and are often not finished until he has reached the age of twen- 
ty-five or thirty. This time is the most important in the life of 
a youth, for announcement is made to the world that he is no 
longer a child, but has reached that age when he is fit to enter 
man's estate and perform the functions for which he was in- 
tended. 

Up to the time of the initiation the youth has had practi- 
cally no systematic instruction and so his schooling really be- 
gins at the age when most civilized children are well grounded 
in the so-called fundamentals. ' ' The knowledge is conveyed to 
the savage boy in a most effective manner, by means of various 
elaborate ceremonies of a dramatic nature, performed by mem- 

[78] 



bers of the different totems and intended to picture events in 
the life of the mythic ancestral individuals who lived in the 
ancient time — half animal creations whose descendants are the 
present menibers of the tribe. Thus, performances which seem 
on the outside merely imitations of different animals are really 
part of the instruction of the novice in the sacred lore con- 
nected with the totems and the ancestors of the various clans. ' n 

Another purpose of these ceremonies is to teach the novice 
in a most vivid fashion those things which in the future he 
must avoid. For this reason many of the rites are almost 
equivalent to a morality play. "At first sight some of the 
performances seem to be very immoral, being presented on the 
principle of sin/ilia similibus curantur. Those men who guard 
the boys talk to the boys in ah inverted language so that the 
real meaning is just opposite of what they say. At the end of 
every sentence the speaker adds 'Yah,' which negatives all that 
has been said and done. Indeed, the use of the word 'Yah' runs 
through the whole conversation carried on during the cere- 
monies. ' ' 2 " The lads are told that this is done in order that they 
may learn to speak the truth. Various offences against moral- 
ity are exhibited and the guardians warn the novices of their 
death or of violence, should they attempt to repeat the actions 
which they have just witnessed. There are many obscene 
gestures for the purpose of shocking the young fellows ; and if 
the latter show the least sign of mirth or frivolity, they are hit 
on the head by an old man who is appointed to watch them. ' ,;; 
In one ceremony four or five of the old men sit on the ground 
making mud pies. The guardian of the boys says to them, 
"Look at that! Look at those old men, when you get back to 
camp, go and do like that, and play with little children — 
Yah ! ' ' 4 

CLOTHING AND BODY DECORATION. The clothing 
of the Australians is very sparse and consists for the most part 
of a girdle of plaited grass or hair. In some places a cloak of 
opossum's or dog's skin is worn. Frequently, even in Central 
and South Australia, the people go entirely naked, despite the 
severe and changeable character of the climate. What they 
lack in clothing is made up in paint and tattoo designs. The 
patterns which are painted on the body are usually connected 
with the totems, especially when they are placed on the body 
during the initiation ceremonies of the boys. Hence, they have 
not only an ornamental, but also a religious value. Tattooing 
consists in the cicatrization of the skin. Most of the elder men 
of the tribe are thus marked and often the ceremony takes 
place at the time of admission to the class of elders. This very 

1 H. Webster, " Primitive Secret Societies," pp. 140-141. 

2 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 533. 

3 Webster, pp. 49 ff. 

4 Howitt, p. 534. 

[79] 



painful operation is performed with pieces of shell or sharp 
stones. A deep gash is made in the chest or back and the 
wound filled with dirt or ashes ; so that when it heals a 
very high scar is left. A girl is not allowed to marry until she 
has been tattooed and it is often by the totem marks on her 
back that a man determines whether she belongs to the class 
into which, by custom, he is allowed to marry. 

PLEASURES. The favorite amusements of the Austra- 
lians are singing and dancing. The musical instruments which 
they have are of the crudest sort — two pieces of bamboo struck 
together, or a rolled up skin, upon which time is beaten. Danc- 
ing is always accompanied by songs, which usually have a very 
melancholy note running through them. It is often difficult to 
distinguish between their singing and speaking. During great 
emotion their speech passes into song and the time depends 
upon their degree of passion. They sing frequently not only 
their joy and sorrow, but also their hunger and anger. Many 
of their songs describe their experience in war and in the chase, 
and the dances which accompany many of these are the panto- 
mimic representation of the actual events. 

"Best known are the gymnastic dances of the Australians, 
the corroborries, which have been described in nearly every ac- 
count of Australian travel, for they are known over the whole 
continent. The corroborries are always performed at night, 
and generally by moonlight. We do not, however, consider it 
necessary, for that reason, to regard them as religious cere- 
monies. Moonlight nights are chosen probably not 'because 
they are holy, but because they are clear. The dancers are 
usually men, while women form the orchestra. Frequently 
several tribes join in a great dancing festival; four hundred 
participants have occasionally been counted in Victoria. The 
largest and most noteworthy festivals apparently take place on 
the conclusion of a peace ; moreover, all the more important 
events of Australian life are celebrated by dances — the ripen- 
ings of a fruit, the beginning of the oyster dredging, the initia- 
tion of the youth, a meeting with a friendly tribe, the march to 
battle, a successful hunt." 1 

RELIGION. The religion of the Australian is closely con- 
nected with the mythical ancestors of the past. They inhabit the 
sun, moon, stars, animals, trees and in fact nearly all objects in 
nature. There are numerous legends concerning these beings 
which account for the creation not only of man, but also of all 
other things on the earth. One of the most important elements 
in the religion of the Australian is the totem. This is a class 
of material objects such as a certain kind of an animal or plant, 
sun or rain, to which the natives think themselves actually 
akin, and in connection with which they feel that there is an 

1 E. Grosse, " The Beginnings of Art," pp. 207 ff. 

[80] 



intimate and altogether special relation. Men belonging to 
the kangaroo totem are not allowed to eat that animal, but 
they are supposed by certain eerenionies to keep a supply of 
that animal in the country, so that the men of the other totems 
may have plenty to eat. Under certain circumstances they are 
allowed to kill their own totem animal, hut they must hand it 
over to other people to be eaten. 

Besides the totem a man has an individual guardian spirit, 
that is, a tutelary deity, who looks after him especially. This 
is either assigned to him by the medicine man, or acquired in 
a dream or in some other way, but it is not hereditary. 

Magic plays an important part in the Australian religion. 
It is through its agency that the animals are caused to appear, 
rain made to fall, and people placed in the power of those who 
can wield its influence. The magic of the savage is based upon 
two fundamental principles ; first, that like produces like, or 
that effect resembles its cause. That is, he feels that in order 
to produce the phenomena of nature upon which he depends 
for his very life, he has only to imitate them, and by some se- 
cret sympathy the gods will be required to grant his request. 
The second principle is, that things which have once been in 
contact but have ceased to be so, continue to act on each other 
as if the contact still persisted. He feels that he can influence 
any person no matter how great the distance, provided he has 
some part of the body such as the nails or hair, or something 
with wdiich the person has come in contact. 

The strongest magic resides in certain parts of the human 
body or in the remains of human food. Every black fellow 
tries to obtain, for purposes of magic, the bones and the back- 
bones of certain birds and fishes of which someone has con- 
sumed the flesh. By means of these he thinks that he can ac- 
quire power over that man for life and death. In order to 
adapt the bones for that purpose they are first scraped, and 
then a lump of red ochre, fish oil, the eye of a fish, and the 
flesh from a corpse, are stuck upon them, and the whole is laid 
on the breast of a human corpse. Then, if the other person 
annoys the magician, he sticks the bone in the earth near the 
fire so that the lump slowly melts away ; as it melts it causes 
the man for whom it was intended to fall ill at however great 
a distance. Human kidney fat possesses magical pow r er 
against evil spirits, and it is accordingly extracted from corpses 
and even from living prisoners. 

When the wife of a Central Australian native has eloped 
from him and he cannot recover her, the disconsolate husband 
repairs with some sympathizing friends to a secluded spot, 
where a man skilled in magic draws on the ground a rough 
figure supposed to represent the woman lying on her back. 
Beside the figure is laid a piece of green bark, which stands 

[811 



for her spirit or soul, and at it the men throw miniature spears 
which have been made for the purpose and charmed by singing 
over them. This barken effigy of the woman's spirit, with the 
little spears sticking in it, is then thrown as far as possible in 
the direction which she is supposed to have taken. During the 
whole of the operation the men chant in a low voice, the burden 
of the song being an invitation to the magic influence to go out 
and enter her body and dry up all her fat. Sooner or later — 
often a good deal later — her fat does dry up, she dies, and her 
spirit is seen in the sky in the form of a shooting star. 1 

The doctor or "medicine-man" is a very important func- 
tionary among the Australians for he it is who has the power of 
warding off the evil magic influence of some other man. A 
man becomes a medicine-man by having certain stones or other 
objects put into his body by spirits. Before this takes place he 
falls into a trance lasting two or three days, and when he 
wakes up, he is supposed to have forgotten all his life before. 
This office is often hereditary. These men believe more or less 
in their own powers, perhaps because they believe in those of 
others. The belief in magic in its various forms — in dreams, 
omens, and warnings — is so universal, and mingles so inti- 
mately with the daily life of the aborigines, that no one, not 
even those who practise deceit themselves, doubts the power of 
other medicine-men, or that if men fail to effect their magical 
purposes the failure is due to error in the practice, or to the 
superior skill or power of some adverse practitioner. 2 

DEATH AND BURIAL. The only death regarded by the 
Australians as natural is death in battle. Their minds cannot 
put up with the idea of death as a necessity. Every death that 
is not brought about by visible violence seems to them the 
result of magical arts. These are facilitated by giving the 
physician something which has been taken from the person to 
be acted upon ; and for that reason fragments of food, gnawed 
bones, and the like, are carefully burnt. The first funeral cere- 
mony consists in discovering the enemy who has done the mis- 
chief. Among the Port Lincoln tribes the nearest of kin sleeps 
the first night with his head on the body, in order that in his 
dreams some indication of the magician may reach him. On 
the following day the corpse is borne out upon a bier, and now 
the friends of the deceased call out the names of various per- 
sons. At some one of these they say that the body gives a start 
in a particular direction and moves toward the criminal. The 
Adelaide natives carry the dead on a wheel-shaped bier of 
branches; one man in the center supporting the body with his 
head, until the inquest has arrived at a conclusion. Relations 
who do not lament sufficiently at the funeral are easily sus- 
pected of complicity in the death. Among other tribes in the 

1 Thomas, " Source Book for Social Origins," p. 654. 

2 Thomas, p. 670. 

[82] 



south the corpse is laid on a bier called "the Knowing One," 
and questioned. A movemenl of the bier is regarded as an 
affirmative. It it does not move, further questions are asked. 

Another way, used widely in the southeast, of detecting the 
magician, was to observe tin* direction in which some insect 
crawled from the grave. Or one man would cleverly find 
foot-prints leading towards a suspicious person. 

If the reputed slayer belongs to another tribe, the friends 
of the accused formally curse the dead man and all his deceased 
relatives; thus affording a casus belli. Before the fight, the 
dead man's tribe raises a loud cry of grief, while the other side 
excite them by laughter, mocking dances, and buffooneries. 
Both sides then revile each other vigorously ; a few spears are 
thrown and a slight wound or two given. Finally the old men 
declare that honour is satisfied. 1 

In West Australia the grave is made in a north and south 
direction, and the face of the corpse is turned towards the east ; 
the legs are doubled under the body, so that the heels touch 
the thighs; the hair is cut off and a nail from the little finger 
of the right hand; the finger and thumb are tied together. 
White earth is smeared on the forehead ; a fire is lighted upon 
the grave, the ashes and smoke of which are feared by all. 
The spear and wommera, or spear-thrower, of the dead man are 
broken and a screen of boughs erected round the sepulchral 
mound ; in front of it is a fire ; on the surrounding trees are cut 
rings and notches. 

Further to the north, burial in the earth is' preceded by a 
longer or shorter sojourn in a tree, save in the case of the old 
women ; the tribes say frankly that it is not worth while to 
trouble about them ; we may, therefore, perhaps infer that the 
placing of the body in a tree is in some way a protection of the 
living, or to their advantage. When a young woman or man 
or even a child dies, on the other hand, the body is placed in a 
tree on a platform of boughs ; on the actual spot on which a 
man dies is placed a small mound and the camp removed from 
the neighborhood. A day or two after death this mound is 
carefully examined to see if any animal or creeping thing has 
left its traces there ; if any traces are found they infer from 
them the direction in which the murderer of the dead man 
lives. 

The spirit of the dead person is believed to hover about the 
tree ; sometimes it visits the camp and is recognized by its 
strange whistling voice. At intervals it is asked if the time has 
come for the body to be finally buried ; when the proper oppor- 
tunity has arrived, a few men go to the tree, cut a bark basket, 
and one of them rakes the bones out onto it; the skull is 
smashed into fragments. An ant hill is then selected and the 

1 Ratzel, Mankind, Vol. I, p. 374. 

[83] 



top taken off ; into this the bones are put, with the exception of 
the thigh bone, which is wrapped round with fur string and 
made into a torpedo-shaped parcel. On the next day the 
burumburu, as it is called, is brought to the camp and received 
by some of the women, who wail at intervals. After some fur- 
ther ceremonies the ibone is broken into fragments with a blow 
of an axe, and put into a pit, which is then covered with a 
stone. After this the spirit part of the dead person, which is 
said to be about the size of a grain of sand, goes to the place 
of spirits and remains there until it is time for it to be rein- 
carnated. A curious feature of the belief in recarnation is 
that the spirit becomes a male and a female alternately; per- 
haps this accounts for the even-handed justice that is meted 
out to men and women in the matter of burial rites. 1 

Among the Dieri tribe after a death occurs the people weep 
for hours and smear themselves with pipe clay. "As soon as 
the breath leaves the body of the sick man, the women and 
children leave the camp, the men pull down his hut so as to 
get at his body, and it is prepared for burial by being tied up. 
The great toes are fastened together, and the thumbs are se- 
cured behind the back; this they say is to prevent 'walking/ 
Eight men take the corpse on their heads, and the grave is 
filled, not with earth, but with wood in order to keep the dingo 
at bay. The space round the grave is carefully swept, and the 
camp is moved from its original situation, so as to evade the 
attentions of the spirit if it should happen to get hack to its 
old haunts." 2 * 

Among other tribes the dead body is laid between the two 
piles of logs and duly roasted. "When the skin is black all 
over, the master of the ceremonies draws longitudinal and 
transverse lines with chalk upon it, divides it with a knife 
along the lines from head to foot, separates the head from the 
trunk, and cuts every limb into pieces. Meantime the rest keep 
up a cannibalistic howling and give themselves deep wounds 
with their battle axes. Finally the divided portions are not 
eaten, but buried. 

Many savage tribes can give a very detailed account of a. 
future life, but the Australian does not seem to have been 
much concerned with eschatological problems. An exception- 
ally elaborate story has been obtained from the Wathi-Wathy on 
the Lower Murray. They say that the spirit starts for the sky 
when it leaves the body ; another spirit gives it directions as to 
the road to be followed. There are two roads, one clean, the 
other dirty; the dirty one is the right one, for the other is 
only kept clean !by bad spirits in the hope of tempting men to 
follow it. Then the hooH meets a woman, who tries to seduce 

1 Thomas, "Native Races," pp. 192-193-195. 

2 Thomas, "Native Races," p. 196. 

[84] 



it; then two women with a skipping rope, the woman on the 
clean side being blind. Then on both roads, for they rim 
parallel, is a deep pit, from which flames rise, but a good spirit 

can (dear it at a jump. Two old women take care of him. 
Then the god Thathapuli comes to try the booki's strength, and 
throws a nulla-nulla at a meteor, which is really an emu. 

The Dieri thought that the spirit of a dead man could visit 
a sleeper. The latter reported his dream to the medicine-man ; 
if he decided that it was a vision and not a mere dream, he 
would order a fire to be lighted at the grave and food to be left 
there. They also believe that when anyone dies, his spirit goes 
up to Piriwilpa, the sky ; it can,, however, roam about the earth. 

There is a widespread belief among the natives that a dead 
black "jumps up white fellow"; that is probably not to be 
understood in the sense that the dead black is actually believed 
to return, but that he is reincarnated in the white. It has been 
suggested that the custom of taking off the skin of the dead was 
the origin of this belief, for when the epidermis is removed the 
body appears white ; but the belief is found where the custom 
does not exist, and in the north it is the Malay and not the 
white man who is regarded as the dead black. A more natural 
explanation is given by an answer once given to a white man 
who inquired why they thought he was So-and-So, mentioning 
a dead black ; and got as his answer that if he had not been 
black man once he would not have known the wav to Australia. 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. The government of the 
Australian tribes is in the hands of a head man and a council 
made up of the older men of the tribe. Although something 
like hereditary chieftainship is found in a few tribes, it can 
hardly be said that the hereditary principle was generally 
recognized in Australia in deciding the headship of a tribe or 
local group. When there was a tendency to select the son of a 
late headsman, it was modified by the rule that he must have 
shown himself worthy of the post by attaining distinction as 
a warrior, orator, or bard. Sometimes several qualifications 
were demanded of the chief. In the Yuin tribe he had to be 
a medicine-man, well stricken in years, able to speak several 
languages, skilful as a fighting man, and qualified to perform 
the feats of magic which the Gommeras (headmen) exhibited at 
the initiation ceremonies. 

The council was composed of the heads of totems and local 
groups, fighting men, medicine-men, and generally speaking, 
of old men of standing and importance. This statement of 
Dr. Howitt's really seems to mean that all old men attend, for 
he goes on to say that the attendance at the Mindari ceremony, 
the final stage in the initiation rites of the Dieri, is the qualifi- 
cation for attendance at, and ultimately for speaking in, the 
council of men. The matters dealt with are procuring death by 

[85] 



magic, murder, breach of moral code, offences against tribal 
customs, revealing the secrets of this tribal council, or reveal- 
ing to women the secrets of the initiation ceremonies. 

The principal headman speaks first and after him the heads 
of totems. The manner of speaking is the repetition of broek 
sentences, uttered in an excited and almost frenzied manner, 
according to Mr. Gason. Those who are in agreement with the 
speaker repeat his sentences in a loud voice, but no one com- 
ments on the remarks until it is his turn to speak. 

In some of the tribes the young men were allowed to stand 
around and listen to the deliberations, but not to^talk or laugh, 
while they were going on. In the Yuin tribe the front line was 
assigned to the old men, the Gommeras having a place set apart 
for them ; behind the old men were the young men, but they 
took little part in the proceedings. 

The council takes charge of many cases of justice. When 
a man has been adjudged by the council to have killed some- 
one by evil magic, an armed party, called a pinya, is sent out 
to kill him. The members of this are distinguished by their 
dress ; they have a white band around the head, the point of the 
beard is tipped with human hair, and red and white stripes 
form conspicious body markings. The men do not speak ex- 
cept to put questions as to the whereabouts of the condemned 
man; knowing the remorseless spirit of the pinya, the natives 
answer these without attempting concealment. When the deed 
is done, the pinya is broken up and each man returns to his 
home. 

It is interesting to find that there is a form of peace making 
which may be substituted for the pinya; it consists of the in- 
terchange of goods by the relatives of the deceased and those 
on whom the guilt of blood might fall. Women bring the arti- 
cles for barter, and these are handed to the members of the 
other party ; if they are not satisfied, they argue, and then fol- 
lows a regulated combat between all the men present. 

An erring wife might be clubbed or speared through the 
leg on the spot by her husband, and no one would take much 
notice of the incident. Indeed, the injured hushand might 
actually kill her, if he chose to sacrifice a valuable piece of 
property to an instinct of revenge ; and the woman's kin would 
demand no satisfaction of her death, provided the offence were 
one for which there was a recognized right of inflicting punish- 
ment. 



[86] 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE TASMANIANS. 

ENVIRONMENT. "Tasmania, which was formerly known 
as Van Dieman's Land, is an island with an area of 26,375 
square miles, situated at the eastern extremity of the south 
coast of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass's Straits. 
Its general character is mountainous, with numerous beautiful 
valleys, rendered fertile by numberless streams descending 
from the hills, and watering, in their course to the sea, large 
tracts of country. The southwestern district, washed by the 
Southern Ocean, is high and cold; but the climate of the 
northern and inland districts is one of the finest in the temper- 
ate zone and produces in abundance and variety all the fruits 
which are found under the same latitude in Europe. 

HISTORY. "The island was discovered on the 24th of No- 
vember, 1642, by Abel Jansen Tasman, w r ho named it after the 
Governor of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony Van Dieman. It 
does not appear to have been visited by any European after 
Tasman until March. 1772, when Marion du Fresne, in com- 
mand of a French expedition, spent some days in exploring 
the coast. A twelvemonth later it Avas visited by Captain Fur- 
neaux, in the Resolution, during his temporary separation from 
Captain Cook. The latter celebrated navigator visited the 
island in January, 1777. In the year 1798, Bass, first alone and 
then in company with Lieutenant Flinders, discovered and 
named Bass's Straits, and proved Tasmania to be an island. 
Captain Baudin visited the island in 1802, and the first Euro- 
pean settlement was made the following year under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Bowen at Risdon. Before this time whalers 
had been in' the habit of calling at the island, and we have 
evidence of such a visit as far back as the year 1791. 

"The first aborigine killed was shot by one of Marion's 
party during a misunderstanding, and we have no record of 
any further fatal meeting between the aborigines and Euro- 
peans until 1804, about twelve months after the first European 
settlement was formed. On this occasion a panic seemed to 
have seized the English, who shot down unmercifully a party 
of aboriginal men, women, and children, which was approach- 
ing them with every sign of friendship. In 1828 the hostilities 
caused by this episode had reached such a pitch that the colo- 
nists were nearly driven out of the island ; but the natives, 
never very numerous, w r ere already rapidly decreasing in num- 
bers, when, in 1835, the Black War came to an end by the un- 
conditional surrender of a few hundred of the aborigines. This 

[87] 



wretched remnant, collected together by an energetic man 
named Robinson, was transferred to Flinders Island. Bnt 
change of circumstances, and more especially unsuitable food, 
told woefully on their numbers, and when, twelve years later, 
these were reduced to something over forty, they were trans- 
ferred to Oyster Cove, near Hobart. Here in March, 1869, 
William Lanney, the last Tasmanian male aborigine, died, and 
with the death in dune, 1876, of the woman Truganina, or Lalla 
Rookb, the race was wiped off the face of the earth." 1 

Although these people have entirely passed away, a study 
of them here is important as showing the effect of the higher 
civilization upon the lower. It is not impossible that the fate 
of the Tasmanians will be the fate of many of the savage 
peoples who are either unwilling or unable to accept the princi- 
ples of the higher civilization. 

There seems to be a good deal of doubt on the part of 
students as to the origin of the Tasmanians, but on one thing 
nearly all are agreed — that they were not from the same stock 
as the Australians. Professor Flower, writing in 1878, says, 
' ' The view, then, that I am most inclined to adopt of the origin 
of the Tasmanians is that they are derived from the same stock 
as the Papuans or Melanesians ; that they reached Van Die- 
man 's Land, by way of Australia, long anterior to the com- 
mencement of the comparatively high civilization of those 
portions of the race still inhabiting New Guinea and the ad- 
jacent islands, and also anterior to the advent in Australia of 
the existing native race, characterized by their straight hair 
and by the possession of such weapons as the boomerang, 
throwing-stick, and shield, quite unknown to the Tasmanians. 
But these speculations on the relations, history, and migrations 
of the people who inhabit South-Eastern Asia and Australasia, 
require for their confirmation far more minute examination 
and comparison of their languages, customs, beliefs, and as I 
think, most important of all, their physical characters, than 
has yet been bestowed upon them." 2 

PHYSIQUE. The Tasmanians were, as a rule, about five 
feet six to eight inches high, with bodies frequently out of pro- 
portion. The head would be well developed, ample and fleshy 
shoulders, broad chest and very muscular buttocks, but ex- 
tremities slender and weak, and a stomach proportionately 
much too big. Of those who made a study of these people the 
general impression seems to be that they possessed a very low 
type of physique and have been characterized as " a caricature 
of humanity." Another says, "They are in every respect the 
most destitute and wretched portion of the human family," 
and still another, "I should without hesitancy affirm that they 



1 H. Ling Roth, pp. 1-2. 

2 H. Ling Roth, p. 218. 



[88] 



are a race of beings altogether distinct from ourselves, and 

class them amongsl the inferior species of irrational animals." 1 

These people clearly belonged to the black race, not only 
in so far as their color was concerned, but also as regards their 
other bodily features. .The skull was dolichocephalic; the hair 
was black, crisp and woolly, growing in small corkscrew 
ringlets ; the individual hairs were fine and in cross section 
elliptical or flattened form. ''Upon this form depends the 
tendency to twist, and the kind of curliness which is seen in 
these small corkscrew locks. This peculiarity allowed them to 
load the hair with red ochre, and make it thus hang down in 
separate small ringlets of varying length. Such ringlets give 
a distinguishing character to all the correct portraits of the 
Tasmanians * * * * The Tasmanians had no deficiency 
of hair. They bad whiskers, moustaches and beard ; but all 
of the same slender character, inclined to twist into spiral tufts. 
On the borders of the whiskers there were little tufted pellets 
of hair, like pepper-corns upon the cheeks." 2 

The amount of hair on the body distinguished them from 
the African negro, who has a comparatively small amount. 

The eyes were small, the eyebrow ridges prominent, the 
nose flat and frequently upturned, the mouth wide, and the lips 
everted, although not to the extent of the negro ; the jaw prog- 
nathous, and the chin receding. A very characteristic feature 
was the depression of the bone at the base of the nose which 
gave a singular resemblance to that of the orang-outang. The 
features of neither sex were prepossessing, being flat and ugly, 
especially after they passed middle age. 3 

These people were very clever with their feet, and could 
not only pick up things from the ground with their toes, but 
also carry articles in the same way. "When they wished to 
appear unarmed, they had a habit of walking without any 
weapon in their hands, but very adroitly trailing their spears 
after them, the point held in some manner between their great 
toe and that next it ; this seems to be in order that they may 
have their waddy ready to heave at any small object that may 
appear. The spear is transferred from the foot to the hand 
in an instant. ' ' It would appear that this stealthy carrying of 
arms is a Avarlike precaution, for Calder says "The Tasmanian 
aboriginal, in advancing on a victim whom he meant to kill, 
treacherously approached * * * * with his hands clasped 
and resting on the top of his head, a favourite posture of the 
black; * * * * but all the time he was dragging a' spear 
behind him, held between his toes, in a manner that must have 
taken long to acquire. Then by a motion as unexpected as it 
was rapid, it was transferred to the hand, and the victim pierced 

1 Bonwick, " The Daily Life of the Tasmanians," p. 100. 

2 H. Ling Roth (quoting from Barnard Davis, pp. 9-10), pp. 14-15. 

3 Ling Roth, p. 13. 

[89] 
4* 



before he could lift a hand or stir a step. ' ' The first white man, 
George Munday, who was killed by an aborigine, fella victim 
to this practice : for the native had a spear concealed, and held 
by his toes, and as Munday turned from him, he caught up his 
spear and threw it at him. 

In three qualities they surpassed the average Europeans; 
keenness of sight and hearing, and swiftness of foot; but in 
running they tired very soon, as their bodily strength was not 
great. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. These people spent their time 
wandering from place to place, killing and eating as they went. 
They had no domesticated animals of any kind until the dog 
was introduced among them by the Europeans. They knew 
nothing of agriculture, even in its simplest form, but depended 
upon the roots, berries, and nuts which they could find in 
their wanderings. Of the animal foods the following formed 
the most important articles of diet : kangaroos, opossums, 
bandicotts, wombats, seals, stranded whales, birds, lizards, 
snakes, ants, grubs, and eggs. An occasional source of food has 
been mentioned by one writer. ' ' These people are covered with 
vermin. We admired the patience of a mother, who was a long 
while employed in freeing one of her children from them; but 
we observed with disgust that, like most of the blacks, she 
crushed these filthy insects between her teeth, and then swal- 
lowed them." 1 

Cooking was of the simplest character, for they merely 
threw the meat into the fire, and kept it there until it was half 
broiled and then hauled it out and ate it. They knew nothing 
of the ovens which the natives of Australia possess, nor had 
they learned the art of boiling water by means of heated stones. 

Because of the constant moving from place to place in 
search of food, the natives built neither huts nor villages. 
When they did need any protection from the cold or the 
weather, they put a few branches up against a tree, so that it 
would break the force of the wind. If they were to be for a 
few days in the place, a few sheets of bark thrown over the 
branches were all the protection that was thought necessary. 
Where houses of wood were built for them by the Europeans, 
they soon left them, for they enjoyed the roving life and could 
not bring themselves to the point of settling down. 

MARRIAGE. The marriage system of the Tasmanians was 
very much simpler than that of the Australians. When a man 
wanted a wife, he either took her from some other tribe by 
force, or bargained for her if she were a member of his own 
tribe. A man could have more than one wife, but, as a rule, 
only two or three were taken at one time. Frequently the girl 
was promised from infancy to some friend of the family or to 
his son. "So long as she was unmated, she was the property 

1 La Billardiere, Vol. II, p. 55 — quoted by Ling Roth, p. 123. 

[90] 



of her father or brothers. II' freed from an engagement by the 
death of her betrothed, or the yielding of his rights, she was 
open to an offer, if made to, and approved of by her natural 
owners." 3 

The women were treated almost like slaves or beasts of 
burden and made to do all the work, both on the march and in 
the camp. During their wanderings, "while the men are tak- 
ing it easy in front, the women follow at some short distance 
behind, sweltering under a load of one or two children on 
their backs, a couple of puppy dogs in their arms, and a variety 
of miscellaneous articles slung around them. The men are 
extremely selfish ; if, after being short of food, one kills a 
kangaroo, he does not divide it with the others of the party, 
but, after his wife has cooked it, and taken her place behind 
his back, he satisfies himself with the choicest parts, handing 
her from time to time the half-devoured pieces over his shoul- 
der ; this he does with an air of the greatest condescension, 
without turning around." 

"If a storm came on unexpectedly, the men would sit down 
while the women built huts over them, in which operation, as 
in all others as a menial nature, the men took no part." 2 

Infanticide was common, and it is to this, perhaps, more 
than to any other cause that we can place the final dying out of 
the Tasmanians. "The want of food for infants, the incon- 
veniences of nomadic life, the interference with the personal 
charms of the wife, jealousies of other women, the arrest of 
their own pleasure, the disagreeables of baby life, and some- 
times the desire of sparing a daughter the wretched lot of the 
future, were causes of infanticide. New-born infants were 
often buried alive with the deceased mother. Fathers, when 
enraged with their lubras" would occasionally snatch up and 
murder their child." 4 

As with most savage peoples, a man was not allowed to have 
anything to do with his mother-in-law. If he met her while 
out, he would avoid her by going into the bush. "A story is 
told of a man who was uncomfortable at the attentions of a 
gigantic bully in the tribe towards his gin, and who effectually 
warded off his jealousy by the engagement to give him for a 
future wife a newly-born daughter. The enamoured gentleman 
had thenceforth to keep his distance from the beautiful prop- 
erty." 5 

CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS. The clothing worn by 
the natives during the warm part of the year was at a mini- 
mum. In winter they threw two or three opossum skins, 
fastened together, over their shoulders, but the rest of the 

1 Bonwick, p. 61. 

2 H. Ling Roth, pp. 125-126. 

3 Lubras — women. 

4 Bonwick, p. 79. 

5 Bonwick, p. 80. 

[91] 



body was left quite uncovered. The amount of ornamentation 
was not great, for a strip or two of fur, a few flowers in the 
hair, and a string of beads or shells were all that they had. 
Like the Australians, they heavily scarred the body, especially 
the upper part. Both sexes daubed powdered charcoal and 
red ochre on the face and body, and they frequently drew pat- 
terns on their arms, legs and thighs. At times the paint mixed 
with grease was so thickly smeared over the body that it was 
impossible to see any skin, and as they seldom bathed, the 
effect produced on a foreigner coming near them was far from 
pleasant. The ochre and grease was plastered upon the hair 
until it became a stiff and tangled mop. Frequently they 
would so fix the hair that it hung around their heads in cork- 
screw curls, and for such an operation an entire morning 
would be spent. 

PLEASURES. The amusements of these people were few 
and consisted for the most part of dancing and singing around 
their camp fires at night. Many of their performances were of 
an imitative character, and described by exact motions the 
action of animals, the hunting, fishing, and war expeditions, 
and the domestic life around the camp. "Another amusement 
of these male aborigines was the throwing of waddies and 
spears at grass stems set up as marks, which they frequently 
hit." 1 They also threw spears at each other and so dexterous 
did they become in dodging them, that they were seldom 
wounded. By a contortion of the body, a movement of the head 
to the right or left, or the raising of the leg or arm enabled 
them to escape shafts which would have certainly transfixed 
the less nimble European. 2 

RELIGION. According to most of those who made a study 
of the Tasmanians, they were without the idea of a supreme 
being who created and ruled the universe. Various mission- 
aries who have investigated the subject say that these people 
possessed no creed or any form of religion and had no religious 
rites. But, they add, there was a dread of a malignant and 
destructive spirit, which was the predominant, if not the only 
feeling on the subject." 3 It is in this last statement that we 
find the key to the situation as we see below. Scientists who 
have visited and studied them from an unbiased point of view 
found that they believed in two spirits, a good one who gov- 
erned the day, and a bad one who ruled at night. It was to the 
good one that they addressed their appeals, and when any of 
the family were away, they sang to it in order that the absent 
ones might have a successful journey and a safe return. Be- 
sides these two main spirits, they believed in a plurality of 
powerful, but generally evil-disposed beings, who inhabited 

1 Ling Roth, p. 153. 

2 T i^r, "D^+V, ^ 1 Q 



* .Ling notn, p. iocs. 

2 Ling Roth, p. 19. 

3 Bonwick, pp. 171-172. 



[92] 



crevices and caverns of rocky mountains, and who had tem- 
porary abodes in hollow trees and solitary valleys. Of these 
spirits a few were supposed to be of great power, but the 
majority had the nature usually attributed to goblins and 
elves. 

That they believed in a future life we see from the fact 
that they thought the spirits of their departed friends and 
relatives returned to bless or injure them. In order to avoid 
possible harm they wore around their necks as an amulet, the 
bones of some near kin. The evidence is very slight to prove 
that they believed in otherworldliness. 1 Most travellers say 
that nothing in the way of tools, weapons, or food was left on 
the grave, but the statement of one native, who said, in regard 
to a spear, which was stuck in a single grave, "That is to fight 
with when he is asleep," leads us to believe that perhaps they 
did think of the next world as a place where the things of this 
life would be. needed. 

DEATH AND BURIAL. There were two ways of disposing 
of the dead. One was to burn the body, and the other was to 
place it in a hollow tree. A cremation is described as follows : 
' ' One of the women died. The men formed a pile of logs and at 
sunset placed the body of the woman upon it, supported by small 
wood, which concealed her, and formed a pyramid. They then 
placed their sick people around the pile, at a short distance. 
On A. Cottrell, our informant, inquiring the reason of this, they 
told him the dead woman would come in the night and take 
the 'devil' out of them. At daybreak the pile was set on fire, 
and fresh wood added as any part of the body became ex- 
posed, till the whole was consumed. The ashes of the dead 
were collected in a kangaroo skin, and every morning, before 
sunrise, till they were consumed, a portion of them was smeared 
over the faces of the survivors, and a death song sung, with 
great emotion, tears clearing away lines among the ashes. The 
store of ashes, in the meantime, was suspended about one of 
their necks." 2 

If the ashes were not treated in this way, they were piled on 
the ground in some quiet spot, and over them was built a bark 
hut. There were apparently no funeral rites which had in 
them a religious significance. 

They never spoke of the dead. "'In fact it was a settled 
custom in every tribe, upon the death of any individual, most 
scrupulously to abstain ever after from mentioning the name 
of the deceased — a rule, the infraction of which would, they 
considered, be followed by some dire calamities : they therefore 
used great circumlocution in referring to a dead person, so 
as to void pronunciation of the name — if, for instance, William 

1 Otherworldliness — a belief that the life in the future world is a con- 
tinuation of the life on this earth. 

2 H. Ling Roth, p. 132. 

[93] 



and Mary, man and wife, were both deceased, and Lucy, the 
deceased sister of William, had been married, to Isaac, also 
dead, whose son Jemmy still survived, and they wished to 
speak of Mary, they would say, 'the wife of the brother of 
Jemmv's father's wife,' and so on." 1 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. The ruling power, at 
least during war, was in the hands of that man who could 
assume and hold the authority by force. There is no evidence 
to show that the rule was inherited, nor was it elective. The 
degree of distinction in which any native was held by his 
fellows, or the amount of deference that was paid to his 
opinions depended upon his personal strength, courage, energy, 
prudence, skill, and other similar qualifications. 2 During the 
times of peace the war chiefs retired to the quietude of every- 
day forest life. There is no evidence to show that they were 
ever in the habit of meeting in council to discuss matters con- 
cerning the tribes. The hunting territory of each group was 
clearly marked, and these boundaries were, under ordinary 
circumstances, respected, but should they be broken, a war 
ensued. 

On the whole the Tasmanians were a peace-loving people 
and would probably be in existence to-day, if the white race 
had not come into such forcible contact with them. These 
latter killed off a great number of the black fellows merely for 
sport, and one traveler recounts hunting expeditions which 
went out from the settlements with the idea of "bagging" as 
many natives as possible. "A friend once described to me a 
fearful scene at which he was present. A number of blacks, 
with the women and children, were congregated in a gully near 
town * * * * and the men had formed themselves into 
a ring round a large fire, while the women were cooking the 
evening meal of opossums and bandicoots ; they were surprised 
by a party of soldiers, who, without giving warning, fired 
upon them as they sat, and rushing up to the scene of slaughter, 
found there wounded men and women, and a little child crawl- 
ing near its dying mother. The soldier drove his bayonet 
through the body of the child, and pitchforked it into the 
flames. 'It was only a child,' he said ! It is stated also that it 
was a favorite amusement to hunt the aborigines; that a day 
would be selected, and the neighboring settlers invited, with 
their families to a picnic * * * * After dinner, all would 
be gaiety and merriment, whilst the gentlemen of the party 
would take their guns and dogs, and, accompanied by two or 
three convict servants, wander through the bush in search of 
black fellows. Sometimes they would return without sport; 
at others they would succeed in killing a woman, or, if lucky, 
mayhap a man or two * * * * As the white settler spread 



1 H. Ling Roth, p. 74. 

2 Bonwick, p. 81. 



[94] 



his possessions over the island — over the natives' favourite 
camping-grounds, driving away their kangaroos and replacing 
them with bullocks and sheep — the natives objected in their 
own wajr to the inroad. In many cases, no doubt, the blacks 
were sacrificed to momentary caprice or anger, and suffered 
much wrong. Indeed, one of the Governor's proclamations 
states, that cruelties had been perpetrated repugnant to hu- 
manity and disgraceful to the British people." 1 

1 Ling Roth, pp. 170-171, quoting Hull, " The Aborigines of Tas- 
mania." (MSS. in Royal Colonial Institute). 



195] 



CHAPTER X. 



MELANESIANS. 

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT. Melanesia is a group of 
islands lying in the tropical zone to the north and northeast 
of Australia ; and includes New Guinea, Fiji, the New Hebrides, 
the Solomon Islands, the Santa Cruz group, the Banks' Islands, 
New Caledonia, and the Loyalty Islands. A large number of 
these islands are of volcanic origin and even to-day there are 
numerous active volcanoes situated on them. Because of this 
fact the people live near the sea coast and are therefore a fish- 
ing and trading people. Even on the larger island of New 
Guinea, which has an easily accessible interior, a great majority 
of the population are seafaring people. As in Australia there 
are no large wild animals, although the tusked hog, the casso- 
wary, the wallaby, the tree kangaroo, the opossum and the 
alligator are found in many of the islands. 

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERS. The Melan- 
esians belong to the black race. The skull is dolichocephalic. 
The hair of the head, which is long and very curly, is a source 
of great pride to the people. They arrange it in enormous 
perukes which stand far out from the head so that they have 
been given the name "mop-heads." The people of Southern 
New Guinea have been called Papuans, which, being trans- 
lated, means "frizzle-haired". So much time is spent in comb- 
ing, cutting, and decorating the hair that they do not take it 
down at night, and so, like the Chinese, they have special 
curved sleeping stools for their heads so that their coiffures 
will not be disturbed. There is a good deal of hair on the face 
and on the body, although it is not as abundant as that of the 
Australians. The chief physical distinctions from the African 
negroes lies in the fact that on the skulls of the males the 
ridges above the eye-sockets are generally very well developed, 
instead of this region being nearly flat. Usually the nose is 
narrower and more prominent than that of the negro, especially 
in New Guinea and the neighboring islands, while the skull 
itself is, as a rule, higher and narrower, although some skulls 
are essentially African in character. Many of the people have a 
flat receding forehead, but this is largely due to artificial bind- 
ing when the individuals are young, in order that a certain type 
of beauty may be acquired. 

In many respects the Melanesians are more savage in their 
disposition than are the Australians. It has been said of them 
that they are "frightfully barbarous and blood-thirsty, 
cowardly, revengeful, proud to the uttermost, and much given 

[96] 



to lying: which bad qualities are most conspicuous in the 
Fijiaus, the most advanced of them all." They are a great deal 
inferior to the Polynesians and to the Malays, and occupy, as it 
were, a depression in the level of culture between these two 
peoples, retaining much which among the others has already 
become obsolete. "The Melanesian is more impulsive, more 
frank, noisier, more violent than the Polynesian. A casual 
utterance will cause a woman to sit down in the public place 
of a village, shed tears without end and fill the air with lamen- 
tations and a flood of scolding and threatening language. The 
cry will be heard from the top of a hill, 'War! War! Will no 
man kill me that 1 may go to the shade of my father?' All rush 
to the spot and find a man in the depths of grief because his 
friend has cut off a yard or two from a piece of bark cloth 
belonging to them in common. Suicide is not unknown." 

Revenge may form the most important duty in life for a 
Melanesian. If a man is injured he puts up a stick or a stone 
where he cannot help but see it, to keep him constantly in 
mind of the duty of revenge. If a man abstains from food or 
keeps away from the dance it is a bad sign for his enemies. 
The man who goes about with his head half-shaved, or, in ad- 
dition to this, allows a long twisted bunch of hair to hang down 
his back, is thinking of revenge. Sometimes a bundle of to- 
bacco hangs from the gable of his house, which is only to be 
smoked over the corpse of an enemy, or the bloody clothes of 
a slain relation preserve the memory of an unatoned deed. 
Nor is there any lack of friends to keep a man reminded of his 
duty, with songs either lamenting or censuring. Open violence 
is not the only means of appeasing revenge. Hired assassins 
are employed, or magical devices with sticks, leaves, or reeds, 
are adopted. A dead man often takes a whole generation with 
him ; his wives are throttled, and his mother often shares the 
same fate. Treacherous and bloodthirsty acts, such as have 
earned a bad reputation for the Solomon Islanders in particu- 
lar, may often be referred only to revenge for some injustice 
suffered. 

If the natives of New Guinea desire vengeance on the in- 
habitants of a neighbouring village, the warriors start out in 
their canoes, yelling and shouting as they go. If the attack is 
successful and the killing and plundering abundant, they 
return to their canoes with hilarious jubilation, dancing and 
drum-beating. 

"Then the wretched captives' palms are pierced, a string 
passed through the holes and the hands tied together at the 
back. On the return voyage they are jeered at and taunted 
with the prospect of torture, and when the flotilla arrives they 
are thrown into the water and fished out by those on the beach, 
sticking barbed spears into the less vulnerable fleshy parts, the 
use of hands being barred by custom. In the village they are 

[97] 



put on mats, a rope secured to a tree is passed round their 
necks to make them sit with head erect, and their hands held 
down, while the nearest female relative . of the man to be 
avenged steps forward armed with a sharp-pointed stick. 'Is 
it with this right eye,' she asks, 'that you have seen my son 
(or brother, etc.), captured? Is it with this right eye you saw 
him cut to pieces, cooked and eaten? "Well, this is the payment 
for it,' thrusting the stick into his right eye. All the other 
female relatives then follow, each in her turn inflicting some 
fresh but not deadly gash, after which he is wrapped in dry 
cocoanut leaves, hoisted some six feet from the ground, and 
slowly roasted with firesticks. When the rope by which the 
body is hung is burnt and the body falls to the ground the 
wildest and most savage scene takes place. The natives rush 
with knives in their hands, each slashing a piece off the body, 
which may be still alive, in the midst of diabolical noise and 
yells of rejoicing." 1 

INDUSTRIAL LIFE. FISHING. In the industrial life 
of the people, fishing holds the most important place. This 
is carried on from boats by means of nets, which in New Guinea 
are often 500 yards long and require hundreds of men to 
handle them; by hooks made from birds' bones, tortoise shell, 
sea shells, and hard wood, and fitted with artificial bait made 
from feathers or bright pieces of shell. Those used for sharks 
are sometimes 20 inches long. In New Caledonia and Western 
Melanesia fishing is done entirely with arrows, spears, and 
nets. 

BOAT BUILDING. The people of Melanesia have become 
very skilful in navigation and in the construction of their 
boats. A great number of their canoes are made out of hollow 
tree trunks and even their large sailing canoes, which will hold 
40 men, are made from a single log. These latter are not only 
dug out, but the sides are also built up and decks laid with 
planks tied on. Most of these boats, whether propelled by 
sails or paddles, have outriggers which enable them to go out 
in rough weather without fear of being capsized. 

The larger boats of New Guinea are from 16 to 20 feet 
long, and from 2 to 2\ wide. The hull, made in one piece, is 
hollowed out from a trunk which must have no flaw. It is 
not more than half an inch thick, and has cross-ties to keep 
it from warping. Both ends curve upwards and are strength- 
ened with wooden posts, of which that in the stem rises high 
and is adorned with arabesques, or painted. To raise the gun- 
wale above the water line they employ the ribs of sago-palm 
leaves. These are by preference interlaced, and then being 
attached like tiles to the cross-ties, form a water-tight surface. 
Over the gunwale are fastened two light cross-pieces, which 

1 Dr. Lamberto Loria, Official Report, 1895, Appendix S, pp. 44 ff. 
Keane, " Man Past and Present," p. 133. 

[98] 



project about 5 feet, and at the end of which is another piece 
of wood, beid at right angles, just touching the surface of the 
water, and sticking into a strong boom, which, is as light as 
cork and serves as a float. Amidships on the cross-timbers a 
square cabin of bamboo is erected, sheltered against injury 
from weather by a small roof of coco-palm leaves. All other 
kinds of craft, from the raft upward, are found in New 
Guinea. The ornamentation, especially that of the war-canoes, 
is rich. 

After a big war canoe is finished, a feast is held at which 
as many as a hundred pigs may be killed. In order to have 
it dedicated properly they try'to get a human victim. In the 
Eastern Solomon Islands, if no victim is met with on the first 
trip of the new canoe, the chief, who owns the canoe, secretly 
arranges with some nearby chief to let him have one of his 
men — some friendless man, probably, or a stranger — 
would then be killed as he went out to look at the new canoe. 
It was thought a kind thing to come behind and strike him 
without warning. Further west, captives were kept with a 
view to taking their heads when new canoes were launched. 1 

In these larger boats the people are able to travel many 
hundreds of miles. They go on these long journeys either 
for the purpose of falling upon the inhabitants of neighboring 
islands and getting heads for their canoe houses, or in order to 
meet on some appointed day of the year for an exchange of 
goods. 

AGRICULTURE. Although the Melanesians are largely 
a fishing and trading people, yet agriculture is not neglected. 
The chief articles raised are the yam, the bread fruit, the 
banana, and the coco-nut palm. The cultivation of these is 
carried on in fields that are fenced in, that have irrigation 
ditches, and that are carefully weeded. At the time of the 
harvest of the yams a great feast is held, often lasting for 
days, to which are invited people from the surrounding 
country. The time is taken up with singing, dancing, eating, 
and drinking. After the feast is over, the rest of the yam 
harvest is stored away in a house where the fruit will often 
keep for two years. 

CANNIBALISM. Cannibalism, although existing on some 
of the islands, is now largely a thing of the past. Where it is 
practiced, men killed in battle are eaten by the victors ; and 
if there is an abundance, the meat is even sold in the market. 
However, to kill for the purpose of eating human flesh, though 
not unknown, is rare. In the New Hebrides, after a bitter fight 
a slain enemy is eaten as a sign of rage and indignation ; he is 
cooked in an oven as is a pig and then each member of the 
tribe eats a portion of him. 

COOKING. In cooking the food, the people of Melanesia 

1 Codrington, " The Melanesians," p. 297. 

[99] 



differ from all other peoples of Oceania in that many of them 
possess pottery. Those who have not acquired this art, boil 
water in wooden bowls by dropping into them red hot stones. 
One method of cooking meat is to lay it between hot stones, 
but a more effective way is to sprinkle water over the stones, 
put the food on, and then cover the whole thing with leaves 
and clay. The result is that the meat is thoroughly steamed. 
Many of the tribes have a permanent oven dug in the ground 
and lined with stones that will bear great heat. A fire is 
lighted in the hole by rubbing two sticks together and many 
extra stones are then put in. When it has burnt down, these 
latter stones are taken out with wooden tongs, and the food is 
wrapped in leaves and placed inside, hot stones are placed 
between the larger bundles and the rest of the hot stones 
piled on top. The whole is shut in with leaves or earth, and 
water, either salt or fresh, is poured on to make steam. This 
method of cooking, which takes a good part of the day, is 
carried on by the men. 

WEAPONS AND FIGHTING. Of the weapons used in the 
hunt and in the fight the spear is the most common, although 
the bow and arrow is used on all of the islands. At the time of a 
fight the men carry shields to ward off the enemies' spears. A 
fight among these people is not a very serious affair, for if 
they come together in the open, the battle begins and ends in 
a series of duels. Even where they fight with bows, an open 
battle is not common. There is much shouting of defiance, 
cursing, abuse, and boasting, stamping with the heel, and 
grasping of the ground with the toes, which is a marked sign 
•of valor ; but when the first blood is shed, the battle is over. 

The arrow is supposed to have certain magical power be- 
cause the head is, as a rule, made from a human bone. The 
maker sings or mutters charms as he ties the bone to the 
shaft, expecting thereby to get the help of the man whose 
bones he is using in making the wound fatal. Not long ago 
there was a man on Leper's Island who because of love for 
his dead brother dug up his body and made arrows from his 
bones. With these he went about speaking of himself as 
"I and my brother"; all were afraid of him, for they believed 
that his dead brother was at hand to help him. 1 

WOUNDS. If a man is wounded by one of these charmed 
arrows and part of it has been left in the wound, it is extracted 
by means of leaf poultices, and is kept in a damp place or on 
cool leaves. They think that the result will be favorable to 
the injured man and that the inflammation will go down. 
Shells, over which incantations have been sung, are hung from 
the roof of the house where the wounded man lies, with the 
expectation that their rattling will keep off the hostile ghosts. 
The man who has done the injury has by no means finished 

1 Codrington, p. 309. 

[100] 



his work. "He and his friends will drink hot and burning 
juices, and chew irritating leaves; pungent and bitter herbs 
will be burnt to make an irritating smoke; a bundle of leaves 
known to the shooter, or bought from a wizard, will be tied 
upon the bow that sent the arrow, to secure a fatal result; 
the arrow head, if recovered, will be put into the fire; the bow 
will be kept near the fire to make the wound it has inflicted 
hot. or, as in Lepers' Island, will be put into a cave haunted 
by a ghost ; the bow-string will be kept taut and occasionally 
pulled, to bring on tension of the nerves and the spasms of 
tetanus to the wounded man.". 1 

HOUSES. Most of the houses are built on piles, probably 
for protection from enemies and animals. In some localities 
they are situated out in the water, the connection with the shore 
being made by means of a long gangway, which can be pulled 
in when necessary. The side walls and floor are formed of 
split bamboos which have been flattened and interlaced. The 
roof is made of interwoven grasses and leaves. Frequently 
an entire land village, consisting of about fifty houses, will be 
up in the air, and it is possible to go from one house to another 
without descending to the ground. The houses are in many 
cases so large that several families can live in a single one, 
and if a man has many wives, each will have a small house to 
herself within the big one. In New Guinea, huts large enough 
to hold twelve people are fastened to the branches of big 
trees, 80 to 100 feet above the ground. The stem below is 
stripped of all unnecessary branches and then made perfectly 
smooth. The entrance to the hut is made by ladders of bam- 
boo, which can be pulled up after the occupants have safely 
reached the top. At the foot of the tree is another hut which 
is used during the daytime, the upper one being used only 
at night, or in case of sudden attack. 

FURNITURE. The furniture for these houses is of the 
simplest character. Boards covered with a mat form the bed. 
The hearth is made of basket work with a layer of earth in it. 
Long pieces of bamboo, with the joints pierced for holding 
water, sacks of matting, javelins, bows, arrows, and spears all 
have their appointed places. There are also to be found pieces 
of pottery and wooden bowls which are used in cooking. 
Most of the houses are very elaborately carved with figures of 
men and animals. In this art the Melanesians are very skil- 
ful, and display their talent on practically all the tools and im- 
plements which can conveniently be so treated. 

MARRIAGE. Marriage takes place among the Melanesians 
at a very early age. It frequently happens that a man with a 
son born to him will wait for the birth of a suitable girl to be 
his son's wife. This is especially true among the more wealthy 
members of the population, where payments and negotiations 

1 Codrington, p. 310. 

[1011 



begin at birth and last until the marriage is finally consum- 
mated. "When little children have been betrothed, the girl, 
still very young, comes bringing her food with her to spend 
a month or two in her future father-in-law's house, and to 
become acquainted with the family. The betrothed children 
converse and play together at their ease, knowing what is 
proposed; and this visit is repeated while the children are 
little, from time to time, and part of the money, porpoise teeth 
and dogs' teeth, to be paid to the girl's father, is handed over. 
In consequence of this familiaritj^ when the girl is marriage- 
able and all is arranged, she goes willingly enough to take 
up her abode in her new family without any real or affected 
reluctance On her part, or lifting or carrying by her friends. 
It is sometimes, however, a long time before the marriage is 
consummated, through the shyness of the bridegroom, though 
the parents encourage the young couple to be friendly, and 
give them opportunities of talking and working together." 1 

Frequently it is necessary that the girl be tattooed when 
she reaches a marriageable age. This is done by a professional 
man who is paid for services in pigs and other goods When this, 
is finished, the father of the boy knows that it is time for him 
to make the final payment on his son's wife. 

When the marriage day arrives, a ceremony is held in the 
center of the village. The groom and his parents provide a 
feast for the bride . and her friends and an orator tells him 
to feed her well, treat her kindly, and not to be sulky with her. 
The bride, attired in a new petticoat and wrapped in a new 
mat, is then handed over to the groom. In some cases where 
there has not been such close intimacy during childhood, a 
sham fight takes place between the relatives of the bride and 
groom. After it is over, the bride is escorted to the house of 
the groom, or of his father; and the marriage ceremony is 
comnleted. 

RELATION OF THE SEXES. Before marriage the rela- 
tionship between the two sexes is very free, and unchastity 
is not seriously regarded. However, in some of the islands there 
are a great many professional women, who, after they have 
collected a fortune, are eligible for marriage, and even girls 
of the better class provide themselves with a dowry by selling 
their favors. It frequently happens that daughters of wealthy 
parents are kept strictly chaste and should they break over 
the moral taboo, they are placed in the class of common prosti- 
tutes. On the other hand adultery is very seriously punished. 
The man, if he is caught, is either put to death or made to pay 
a heavy fine. The wife is either dismissed, or the chief takes 
her and makes her earn money for him. If adultery occurs 
among the lower classes, the friends of both sides will fight 
about the damages to be exacted. It is from this cause that 

1 Codrington, pp. 238-239. 

[102] 



most of the fights on the islands originate. Divorce is easy and 
common and may take place at the will of either party. One 
great deterrent is that the property paid for a wife is not 
returned. If it is desired on both sides, the father of the 
woman will pay back her original price. 

A man may have more than one wife, and the ceremonies 
and payment for all after the first, are slight. It is the duty 
of a man to take over his deceased brother's wives and add 
them to his own, in order that the property may not be lost 
by some other man taking them. .Cases have been known where 
a man has had sixty wives, but the average man is perfectly 
contented with two. However, as a man advances in years, 
there tend to collect about him the widows of his maternal 
uncles, his brothers, and his cousins, so that he becomes, in 
name, at least, the unhappy husband of a host of female re- 
lations. 

ABORTION AND INFANTICIDE. Abortion and infanti- 
side are common in all classes of society. The old women 
frequently determine whether a new-born child shall live, and 
if it is not promising in appearance, or is likely to be trouble- 
some, or is of the wrong sex, its mouth is stuffed with leaves, 
or perhaps it is thrown into a hole and stones put in on top 
of it. On the Banks' Islands male children are killed rather 
than female, for the latter will bring in a good sum of money 
when sold in marriage. Twins are looked upon with favor, al- 
though among many savage peoples either one or both are 
killed. 

INITIATION OF BOYS. When the age of puberty arrives, 
the boy is initiated into the tribe as a man. Up to this period 
he has lived at home with his mother and sisters, but now he 
must leave them, and go to eat and sleep in the men's club 
house. His intercourse with his mother and sisters becomes 
very reserved. "He must not use as a common noun the word 
wdiich is the name, or makes part of the name, of any of them, 
and they avoid his name as carefully. He may go to his 
father's house to ask for food, but if his sister is within, he 
has to go away before he eats. If no sister is there, he can 
sit down near the door and eat. If by chance brother and 
sister meet in the path, she runs away or hides. If a boy on the 
sands knows that certain footsteps are his sister's, he will not 
follow them, nor she his. This mutual avoidance begins when 
the boy is clothed, or the girl tattooed, and continues through 
life. The reserve between son and mother increases as the boy 
grows up, and is much more marked on her side than his. He 
goes to the house and asks for food. When his mother brings 
it, she does not give it to him, but puts it down for him to 
take. If they talk together, she sits at a little distance and 
turns away, for she is shy of her grown-up son." 1 

1 Codrington p. 232. 

[103] 



CLOTHING. The clothing is of the simplest character and 
for the most part consists of a loin cloth, made from leaves, 
grasses, or bark cloth, hammered out of the bark of the paper 
mulberry. Peschel has said that the amount of clothing worn 
by men varies inversely as the darkness of the skin, and hence 
we are not surprised to find that the clothing of these people 
is left almost entirely to the imagination. The body is often 
tattooed, but not with the elaborate designs which appear 
among the Polynesians. They follow the Australians in this 
respect, by deeply scarring the skin chiefly for religious rea- 
sons. Shells, bones, and teeth are used in great profusion for 
ornamentation. These are worn not only around the neck, but 
are also placed in perforations made in the ears, lips, and nose. 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. The chief amusement of these 
people is dancing. Often large groups of men will wander 
from island to island giving exhibitions of their ability along 
this line. They wear elaborate costumes, and their hair is 
dressed with great care. The dance is accompanied by the 
song and by the noise of the drum and a sort of flute, or pan- 
pipes made from stems of the bamboo. In their hands the 
dancers have castanets of shells and around their ankles and 
wrists rattles of nuts and seeds. 

Of their games, football, which is played much like the 
Rugby game, is the most enjoyable, although hurling spears at 
one another and dodging them is also an important sport. The 
children play hide-and-seek, fly kites, and spin tops much as do 
those of a more civilized community. 

RELIGION. The religion of these people is, in many re- 
spects, similar to that of other savages living on the same stage 
of culture. "Their mind is entirely possessed by the belief in 
a supernatural power or influence, called almost universally 
mana. This is what works to effect everything which is beyond 
the ordinary power of man, outside the common processes of 
nature. It is present in the atmosphere of life, attaches itself 
to persons and to things, and is manifested by results which 
can only be ascribed to its operation. When one has got it, 
he can use and direct it, but its force may break forth at some 
new point. The presence of it is ascertained by proof. A man 
comes by chance upon a stone which takes his fancy ; its 
shape is singular ; it is like something ; it is certainly not a 
common stone ; there must be a mana in it. So he argues with 
himself and he puts it to the proof; he lays it at the root of a 
tree to the fruit of which it has a certain resemblance, or he 
buries it in the ground when he plants his garden ; an abundant 
crop on the tree or in the garden shows that he is right, the 
stone is mana, has that power in it. ' n This universal animation 
of everything does not mean that the spirits are necessarily 
good, and many of the ills of life are ascribed to their male- 

1 Codrington, pp. 118-119. 

[104] 



volenl influence. Most of the religious rites of the people con- 
sist in obtaining this mana, or deriving benefil from it, either 
through prayers or sacrifice. "The other world can become 
practically effective for the Living, either through the media- 
tion of departed souls which wander between heaven and 
earth, or by the entry, whether temporary or permanent, of 
a god into an earthly object. In this way, the tutelary spirits, 
who are extraordinarily important in the practical service of 
the gods, came into existence." 1 

"The Melanesians believe in the existence of beings per- 
sonal, intelligent, full of mana, "with a certain bodily form 
which is visible, but not fleshly like the body of man. These 
they think to be more or less actively concerned in the affairs 
of men, and they invoke and otherwise approach them. These 
may be called spirits; but it is most important to distinguish 
between spirits who are beings of an order higher than man- 
kind, and in the disembodied spirits of men, which have be- 
come, in the vulgar sense of the word, ghosts." 2 

"There is no priestly order, and no persons who can prop- 
erly be called priests. Any man can have access to some object 
of worship, and most men in fact do have it, either by discovery 
of their own, or by knowledge imparted to them by those who 
have before employed it. If the object of worship, as in some 
sacrifices, is one common to the members of a community, the 
man who knows how to approach that object is in a way their 
priest and sacrifices for all of them ; but it is in respect to that 
particular function only that he has a sacred character; and 
it is very much by virtue of that function that a man is a 
chief, and not at all because he is chief that he performs the 
sacrifice. Women and children generally are excluded from 
religious rites. In close connection with religious observances 
come the various practices of magic and witchcraft, of doctor- 
ing and weather-doctoring, for all is done by the aid of ghosts 
and spirits." 3 

DEATH AND BURIAL. After a man is dead, his ghost is 
supposed to have greater power and force than the man had 
during life. Hence the people have the utmost desire to keep 
on the right side of the recently dead, especially if the person 
was a prominent member of the community. "The souls of old 
chiefs are deified after their death, and invoked by name with 
sacrifices. A certain gradation is imported into this troop of 
spirits and souls by the distinctions of rank which prevailed 
among their former earthly tabernacles. For this reason the 
destiny of the souls of chiefs and priests which have quitted 
the earth is materially higher than that of the lower classes, 
since even in life the former were inhabited by higher powers, 

1 Ratzel, " History of Mankind," Vol. I, p. 300. 

2 Codrington, " Melanesians," p. 120. 

3 Codrington, p. 127. 

[105] 



and these will have a yet more powerful effect when freed from 
the bodily husk. Since the souls of chiefs go to the stars, while 
others wait upon or within the earth, the stars are designated 
simply as the souls of the departed. As these take their way 
upward in the darkness they are of course easily seized and 
dragged about by evil spirits." 1 

"No sooner has the soul left the body than it enters upon its 
wandering, which ends in various ways, according to its rank 
and deserts. At first it does not go far away, and by a com- 
bination of forces can often be recalled ; to which end the 
relations round the death-bed call out, loud and impressively, 
the name of the departing. It is believed that immediately 
after death the soul can be recaptured. In one dirge, the 
dead man's wife calls upon him as a bird, which flies ever 
farther to its home and its adopted parent. ' n 

"Great variety prevails in modes of interment. In the 
west the body is kept at hand as long as possible ; and at least 
portions of it, especially the skull, and above all, the lower jaw, 
are prepared for permanent preservation. On the Maclay 
coast of New Guinea the corpse has usually to be dried before 
the fire in the hut. In other islands it is hung up in mats 
between the branches of trees until the soft parts have decayed 
away, after which it is laid symmetrically with other skeletons 
in a cave on the seashore. Children's bodies are merely hung 
up in a basket under the roof. Burial within the hut is cus- 
tomary in Fiji. Among the Motus of Port Moresby the only 
sign of mourning is the incessant beating of drums for three 
days. When this is over, the grave is dug in front of the house, 
the dead body laid in a mat, and a little hut built over the 
grave. After a time the grave is opened, the corpse taken out 
and smeared on the elbows and knees with red ochre, while 
the widow smears herself with the decaying flesh. Then the 
dead man is put by again, and the little sepulchral house is 
gradually pulled to pieces, so that no trace of the grave is left. 
All these proceedings are accompanied by carousals." 2 

Sometimes the dead man's wife and child are dragged to 
the open grave where they are killed and throAvn in, together 
with his possessions, such as guns, money and household treas- 
ures. Often at the time of the funeral the bread-fruit trees 
and the coco-nut trees which belonged to him are cut down, 
not because they think the things go to the other world to be 
of use to him there, but out of respect. 3 

"The practice of burying alive is widely extended; it was 
extensively used as a means of infanticide, but old and sick 
people sought of their own free will to be buried. In the case 
of new-born children a fire was lighted over the grave to 

1 Ratzel, Vol. I, p. 301. 

2 Ratzel, Vol. I, p. 328. 

3 Codrington, p. 263. 

[106] 



stifle the soul. In Vate, when old people are to be buried alive, 
a pig is tied to their arm, which is afterwards consumed at the 

feast and accompanies the soul into the next world. In the 
Fiji Islands it is also customary to strangle, and the cord is 
regarded there as a greal kindness in comparison with the club. 
If a chief in the Solomon Islands dies, his wives are strangled 
in their sleep; it would be a shame for them, and an insult to 
the dead man's memory, if they were to marry men of lower 
rank. The same end is frequently allotted to the wives or 
nearest relations of an ordinary man ; even in death he must he 
surrounded by those who love him. In Anaiteum the women 
are said to wear the ominous cord round their necks from their 
Avedding day." 1 

The abode of the dead is thought to be above ground on 
some distant island, although in some places the soul follows 
the sun into the ocean, in order to reach the next world. In 
most cases the future life is a continuation of the life on this 
earth. The ehildren-ghosts tease the elder ghosts and are 
banished to a second island ; the chief builds his house and his 
boats; the men and women plant and reap in the fields; and 
finally they pass out of this ghost life into white ants' nests, 
when the people on this earth forget them, and turn to worship 
some of the more recenth' dead, and when no sacrificial food is 
offered. - 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. The government of the 
Melanesians is of the simplest character. The form is not 
tribal and hence there can be no political structure held to- 
gether by the authority of tribal chiefs. What power they 
have rests upon the belief in their supernatural intercourse 
with ghosts and spirits. The petty rulers which do exist hold 
sway both during war and peace. They direct the common 
operations and industries, preside at sacrifices, inflict fines, and 
order people put to death. The people work in their gardens 
and build homes and canoes for them. Each little ruler has 
about him a number of young men, who of their own volition 
have joined themselves to him and who carry out his com- 
mands. 

1 Ratzel, Vol. I, p. 330. 

2 Codrington, p. 261. 



[107] 



CHAPTER XI. 



NEGRITOS. 

CLASSIFICATION AND HISTORY. The Negritos may be 
divided into five branches, separated by great distances of land 
and water, yet each bearing so close a relationship to the others 
that we may consider them under a single head. These are the 
dwarfish inhabitants of Central Africa, the Andaman Islands, 
the Malay Peninsula, Philippines, and part of New Guinea. 

There is little known of the early history of these people or 
how they came to be so distantly separated, but various theo- 
ries have been advanced to account for this dispersing. Keane 
has advanced a suggestion which is perhaps as near the truth 
as any of them. Let us suppose that the original home of the 
negro group was the Indo-Austral region which is now flooded 
by the Indian Ocean. "But before, or simultaneously with, the 
subsidence of the land, its human inhabitants gradually with- 
drew westwards to Africa, northeastwards to India and Malay- 
sia, eastwards to South Australia and Tasmania and later to 
New Zealand. Thus from the remotest times were constituted by 
easy and natural migrations the various Negro groups in those 
regions on both sides of the Indian Ocean, where they have 
always dwelt, and where they are still found, generally in as- 
sociation with allied anthropoid apes. Perhaps the strongest 
argument for the original unity of all these groups, now sepa- 
rated by a great marine basin, is afforded by the fact that the 
two main sections, the African and Oceanic, comprise two dis- 
tinct types, the tall Negro and the dwarfish Negrito. As the 
Negrito appears to represent the primitive stock, from which 
the Negro diverged later, such a parallelism cannot be regarded 
as a mere coincidence. 

"Here the parent stem, after throwing off the two great 
African and Indo-Oceanic branches to the right and left (west 
and east), soon dies out, submerged, as it were, by the rising 
waters of the Indian Ocean. That the Negrito branches, from 
which the Negro proper is seen to break away at an early date 
in both regions, stand nearest to the primitive human type, 
seems self-evident. It would also appear that the western 
(African) branch has on the whole preserved more of the orig- 
inal characters than has the eastern (Indo-Oceanic). Both no 
doubt present in certain groups (Akka, Sakai) an equal degree 
of prognathism, as well as an equally Simian expression, com- 
bined with the normally brachycephalic crania. But the Afri- 
can alone shows the original yellowish complexion, the reddish- 
brown woolly head, the somewhat hairy body and the extremely 

[108] 



low stature, ranging from about :> ft. 4 in. to a little under 5 
ft. Few of the Malaysians fall much below 4 ft. <> in., while 
some, such as the Andamanese, rather exceed 5 ft. The color 
also is described as deep brown or blackish, so that it is not 
always easy to distinguish between the true Negritos and the 
Negroes (Papuans, Melanesians) of Oceanica whereas in Africa 
no doubt ever arises." 1 

The African pigmies or Negritos were recognized in early 
historical times, for not only did Aristotle, Herodotus, and the 
Homeric Singers speak of them, but also their introduction into 
Egypt during the First Empire "is noted. Figures of them, 
carefully sculptured on the tombs in bas-relief, faithfully re- 
produce their racial characters. It is recorded in a hierogly- 
phic inscription that "to him come pigmies of Niam-Niam from 
the Southern Lands to serve in his household." 



AFRICAN NEGRITOS. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. The height. of these people 
averages about four feet, they have a yellowish-brown complex- 
ion, dolichocephalic head, and short kinky hair which is scarce 
on the face and body. The maxillary angle shows a great de- 
gree of prognathism, and the supraorbital ridges are visible. 
The lips are thick and everted, and the nose is flat, broad, and 
depressed at the root. Hands and feet are small, fingers long 
and narrow, and the nails relatively large. 

LIFE CONDITIONS. These Negritos live in the forests of 
Central Africa. They are entirely a hunting people, moving 
from place to place in search for game. "In the chase they 
bound through the tall herbage like grass-hoppers, attacking 
the elephant and even the buffalo with their tiny arrows and 
darts." 2 They become so skilful in the use of their bow and 
arrows that they will shoot three or four arrows, one after the 
other, with such rapidity that the last will have left the bow 
before the first has reached its goal. If a man misses his mark 
he will fly into such a violent passion that he is likely to break 
his bow and arrows. 

"Fully occupied in hunting, Pigmies do not cultivate the 
soil, and for this reason, among others, as is the case with the 
Eskimo, they stand low in the scale of civilization. Skilful 
trappers and hunters, they can kill even elephants with their 
bows and arrows, blinding the animal first by shooting at his 
eyes. Once he is blind, they never leave him till he falls. 

"They are remarkably clever fishermen. With a morsel of 
meat tied to a piece of string, and without the aid of a hook, 

1 Keane's " Ethnology," pp. 242-245. 

2 Keane's, " Ethnology," p. 248. 

[109] 



they will succeed in landing heavy fish, while less-skilled fisher- 
men, with hooks and lines, may not be able to secure one. 

"As a rule the Pigmies take up their abode near a village 
of some big chief, where they are sure of finding large banana 
plantations. Though they grow no food of any kind on their 
own account, they are extremely fond of the unripe long ba- 
nana, and their method of obtaining this delicacy is simple. On 
returning from a day's hunting the Pigmy carefully wraps up 
several small pieces of meat in grass or leaves, betakes himself 
to the nearest banana plantation, and having selected the 
bunches of bananas he requires, shins up the tree, cuts down 
the bunches selected, and in payment affixes one of the small 
packets of meat to the stem by a little wooden skewer. By this 
means he satifies his conscience, and can declare that he has not 
stolen the bananas, but only bought them, for the Pigmy, as we 
have seen, is very angry at the merest suggestion of theft. 

"Pigmies do no work of any sort or kind, purchasing their 
arrow-heads, knives, and spears from the neighboring tribes in 
exchange for meat, or for women whom they have seized in the 
bush." 1 

"One of the most astonishing characteristics of these 
strange little people is their abnormal appetite for all sorts of 
food. Bananas are their chief delight. A Pigmy, I have no 
hesitation in saying, eats as a rule twice as much as will suffice 
a full-grown man. He will take a stalk containing about sixty 
bananas, seat himself and eat them all at meal — besides other 
food. Then he will lie and groan throughout the night, until 
morning comes, when he is ready to repeat the operation. A 
consequent and characteristic feature of his race is the dis- 
tended abdomen,- but, that considered, it is difficult to imagine 
where he manages to stow the enormous quantity of food he 
can consume at a meal. Occasionally, when I have expressed 
surprise — when, for instance, he has surpassed even himself — 
he has assumed an uninterested air, as though the matter were 
merely the most commonplace occurrence in the world, and the 
question one to be waived. 

" 'Yes,' he has said carelessly; 'there were a few bananas 
there on a bunch, and I ate them. I suppose that is what they 
were there for. There's nothing to be surprised about. I 
should like some more if there are any to be had.' ' 

"As they have no cooking utensils, all their food is roasted 
or smoked." 2 

' ' Their villages, if such they can be called, consist of groups 
of perhaps thirty small beehive-shaped huts, each about four 
feet high; the entrance is a small opening a foot and a half 
high, allowing just room enough for them to creep through. 

1 Burrows, " Land of the Pigmies," pp. 187-188. 

2 Burrows, " Land of the Pigmies," pp. 193-194. 

[110] 



They make beds of sticks driven into the ground at four cor- 
ners, with other sticks placed across, the whole being raised a 
few Laches from the floor. Each village is under the leadership 
of a head-man or chief. ' '' 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. "The dress of the Pigmies is 
very simple. The men wear a plain strip of cloth round the 
loins, the women simply a hunch of leaves. They have n,o or- 
naments of an}' kind — a fact which shows their low develop- 
ment, for women as a rule use ornaments as attractions in sav- 
age life as well as in civilized. Possibly when the New r Pigmy 
Woman arrives she will introduce necklaces and earrings. 

"Musical instruments are unknown to them; even their 
dancing is conducted without any sweeter sound than the 
rhythmical tapping of a bow with an arrow. Their whole idea 
of dancing is to strut round in a circle, with their legs quite 
stiff, beating time with bow and arrow, as just mentioned, and 
adding absurd emphasis to the general effect by their set and 
solemn countenances." 2 

FIGHTING. In picking out their hunting grounds, the 
Pigmies show a marked preference for the territories of cer- 
tain strong tribes and an aversion to the others, within whose 
confines they are seldom seen. 

"They are, indeed, considered as valuable allies whose as- 
sistance is w T orth having against an outside foe ; and, in spite of 
their small numbers, they are feared as well as respected from 
their revengeful nature and their hardihood in war. They on 
their part are quite willing to fight loyally for the chief under 
wdiose nominal rule they lead their gypsy life, and will remain 
in his district on these terms as long as relations between them- 
selves and the chief are friendly. Otherwise they abandon 
their huts and move off at once to the neighborhood of another 
chief, where the.y settle afresh and continue to live under a 
similar tacit agreement. 

"They are, however, quite independent, and consider them- 
selves under no obligation to the people of the tribe they may 
for the time be associated with. Thus they preserve their 
freedom, of which they are intensely jealous, and hold them- 
selves entirely aloof from other natives, among whom they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage."' 

"The Pigmies have a curious method of fighting which I 
have had occasion to observe several times. A stranger pass- 
ing through the bush along a track is fair game to them, and 
they therefore conceal themselves when they hear footseteps 
approaching. It does not take much covert to hide a Pigmy. 
As the unsuspecting victim goes by they send their little arrows 
at him, and, if the shot has told, the Pigmy who has fired jumps 

1 Burrows, p. 182. 

2 Burrows, p. 183. 

3 Burrows, pp. 178-179. 

[HI] 



up, utters a little cry, and pats his right arm with his left, im- 
mediately afterwards diving behind a bush plant or tree trunk. 
The Pigmies do the same when they are fighting against num- 
bers in regular bush warfare." 1 



THE ADAMANESE. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. ' ' The Andamanese, who are some- 
times erroneously called Mincopies, inhabit the Andamanese Is- 
lands in the Bay of Bengal. Their head hair is extremely frizzly 
(woolly), fine in texture, lustreless and seldom more than two 
or three inches long, or five inches when untwisted, its colour 
varies between black, greyish black, and sooty, the last per- 
haps predominating. Hair only occasionally grows on the face 
and then but scantily. There is little or no hair over the sur- 
face of the body. The skin has several shades of colour be- 
tween bronze or dark copper, sooty, and black, the predomina- 
ting colour being a dull leaden hue like that of a black-leaded 
stove." 2 The average stature of these people is about 4 feet 
10f inches, the head moderately brachycephalic, the average 
cranial index being about 83. "The features may be described 
as : face broad at the cheek-bones ; eyes prominent ; nose much 
sunken at the root, straight and small; lips full but not 
everted; chin small; the jaws do not project." 3 

LIFE CONDITIONS. The Andamanese cannot strictly be 
called nomads for while they do a good deal of wandering in 
search of food yet they come back at intervals to their tempo- 
rarily abandoned villages. "The sea, which washes their 
coasts, is full of fish, and abounds in turtles ; the jungles are 
filled with wild pigs ; the bees furnish abundance of honey. To 
these three articles of food, which furnish the staple of their 
diet, are added some mammals and reptiles, more rarely cap- 
tured, various birds, and several fruits and edible roots. This 
abundance of wild food readily explains how this population, so 
intelligent and industrious, has yet never felt the necessity of 
domesticating an animal or cultivating a plant; how it does 
not even know that rude form of gardening and farming met 
with among its sisters of the continent and of the Eastern 
archipelagoes." 4 

"While these people have fire and use it in cooking and heat- 
ing yet they have no way of creating it. In all probability 
they obtained it originally from a volcano on the island. The 
people naturally display much care and skill in the measures 

1 Burrows, p. 195. 

2 Wollaston, " Pigmies and Papuans," p. 305. 

3 Wollaston, p. 305. 

4 Quatrefages, " The Pigmies," p. 121. 

[112] 



they adopt for avoiding such inconvenienee as might be caused 
by the extinction of their fires. 

"Both when encamped and while journeying, the means 
employed arc at once simple and effective. When they all 
leave an encampmenl with the intention of returning in a few 
days, besides taking with them one or more smouldering- logs, 
wrapped in leaves if the weather be wet, they place a large 
burning log or faggot in some sheltered spot, where, owing to 
the character and condition of the wood invariably selected on 
these occasions, it smoulders for several days, and can be easily 
rekindled when required." 1 

SHELTERS AND ENCAMPMENTS. The houses are of 
three general types. The first is merely a lean-to and is used 
when only a brief encampment is made, the second is the per- 
manent type, and is made square of trees with a thatch of 
leaves. The third type is a simplification of the second, and is 
erected where the stay is longer than a few days but yet is not 
of sufficient duration to call for a stable hut. 

"Permanent encampments vary in size, and consist of sev- 
eral huts, which in all are rarely inhabited by more than 50 to 
80 persons, though they are capable of affording accommoda- 
tion, of a kind, to a much larger number if necessity arise as 
happens not unfrequently when festive tribal gatherings are 
arranged in honor of a wedding or other occasion of rejoicing. 

"The permanent encampments of the Aryoto are estab- 
lished in those sites which offer special advantages for fishing 
and turtling at all seasons. Wherever there is a fine stretch of 
sandy beach, with an extensive foreshore, they will be invaria- 
bly found, for, at such places, throughout the year the women 
are able at low tide to catch fish in pools with their hand-nets, 
and to collect large quantities of shell-fish while, during the 
flood tides, the men enjoy exceptional facilities for shooting 
fish and harpooning turtles, etc. 

"Although the sites selected for occupation are usually 
well-sheltered, it is not always found possible in tempestuous 
weather, even in the dense jungle which covers every portion of 
their country, to obtain shelter sufficient to allow of their huts 
being so placed as to face inwards towards the dancing ground. 
The primary consideration being naturally to secure as much 
comfort as possible, the sloping roof is at such times presented 
towards the prevailing wind." 2 

MARRIAGE. The relationship between the sexes is very 
similar to that observed among so many savage people. Before 
marriage absolute freedom exists, provided the men and girls 
are not related. If a girl is found to be enceinte, she names the 
man, if she can, and he will marry her. But it makes little dif- 

1 J. A. I., pp. 150. (1882-1883.) 

2 J. A. I., pp. 107-108, (1882-83). 

[113] 



ference whether he is the father of the child or not provided 
that he has had connection with her at some time. Seldom 
does he object to becoming her husband. 

After the marriage strict chastity is required of both the 
man and the woman. 

CLOTHING. The children of iboth sexes are entirely nude 
while even the older people wear very little. But what is lack- 
ing in actual clothing is made up in ornaments, such things 
as garters, bracelets, necklaces of bones, wood, or shell. When 
the men are in full dress they wear branches of leaves attached 
to their knees and wrists while a big leaf is bound around the 
head. Around the waist is worn a belt into which they insert 
arrows or other objects which they wish to carry. The women 
wear a small apron of leaves which they will not remove even 
in the presence of members of their own sex. 

"Both sexes tattoo their entire bodies in a very simple way, 
by little horizontal and vertical incisions in alternating series. 
The women are generally charged with the operation, and, as 
instrument, employ a piece of quartz or glass ; but the first 
three incisions, made low on the back, can only be made by a 
man, and with an arrow used for hunting wild pigs. Morever, 
while these wounds are open, the patient must abstain from 
the meat of these animals." 1 

RELIGION. The Andamanese believe in a Supreme Being, 
Puluga, but the conception of him has been so changed by out- 
side influences that the early primitive elements have been 
greatly altered. Besides this god, there are numerous others 
that occupy the forces of nature and effect man to a greater or 
less degree. 

One of the religious legends of these people is very similar 
to that of the flood in the Old Testament. "For a long time 
men had neglected the observance of Puluga 's prescriptions. 
In his anger the god sent a great flood, which covered the whole 
earth and destroyed all living things. Two men and two 
women, who were by chance in a canoe, alone escaped, and were 
the ancestors of the* present islanders. Puluga created anew 
for them animals of every species, but he neglected to give them 
fire. Then it was that one of their deceased friends, touched 
by their distress, went to seek a brand at the very hearth of 
God. Shortly after, the last interview between Puluga and 
men took place. The god declared to them that the deluge was. 
a punishment for their disobedience to his commands, and 
that they would undergo the same punishment again if they felt 
once more into the same faults. From that time, the Mincopies 
say, the prescriptions of Puluga have been carefully ob- 
served. ' ' 2 

FUNERALS. "The funeral rites — for it is proper to use 

1 Quatrefages, " The Pigmies," p. 120. 

2 Quatrefages, pp. 132-133. 

[114] 



this expression— are nearly the same for children as for adults. 
The former, however, are always buried in the midst of the 
camp, while the latter are transported to the thickest part of the 
jungle, where they are cither buried, or exposed on a platform 
built at the bifurcation of two large branches. 

"On the death of a child the relatives and friends for hours 
weep by the little body. Then, as a sign of mourning, they 
paint themselves from head to foot with a paste of olive-col- 
oured clay. Moreover, after having "their heads shaved, the 
men put a lump of the same clay just above the forehead, and 
the women place a similar lump upon the top of the head. 

"Eighteen hours are usually taken in making the toilet of 
the dead. The mother shaves the head and paints it, as well as 
the neck, wrists, and knees, with ochre and white clay. Then 
the limbs are folded and wrapped in large leaves held by cords. 
The father digs the grave under the fireplace in the hut. When 
everything is ready the parents say a last farewell to their dead 
by gently blowing two or three times upon his face. Then one 
finishes the wrapping in leaves, and places the corpse in a sit- 
ting position in the grave, which is immediately filled. The 
fire is lighted again, and the mother places upon the grave a 
shell containing a few drops of her own milk, that the spirit of 
her child may quench its thirst. The Mincopies believe, indeed, 
that one of the two principles wdiich animate the body will 
haunt for some time its old abode. In order that it may not 
be troubled, the community leave their camp, after having sur- 
rounded the hut, or even the whole village, with a garland of 
rushes (am), the presence of which informs any visitor that 
death has stricken one of the inhabitants and that he must 
depart. 

"During the period of mourning the village is abandoned. 
At the end of about three months they return, the funeral gar- 
land is removed, and the body exhumed. The father gathers 
the bones, cleans them carefully, and divides them into small 
fragments suitable for use in necklaces. The skull is care- 
fully painted yellow r , covered again with a sort of network or- 
namented by little shells, and the mother puts it on a string 
around her neck. After a few days the father in his turn 
wears the relic. The other hones are used to make necklaces, 
which the parents distribute among their friends as souvenirs. 
At the same time the lump of clay, which was worn until then 
as a sign of mourning, is removed, and the usual painting and 
ornaments are resumed. 

"However, all the ceremonies are not yet accomplished. 
On a day agreed upon, the friends of the family gather about 
the hut. The father, holding in his arms the children left to 
him, chants some ancient song, the refrain of wdiich is taken 
up by the women, while all assistants express their sympathy 

[115] 



by noisy lamentations. Then the parents, after having exe- 
cuted the dance of tears retire to their hut, while the dance goes 
on for several hours longer." 1 

REGULATIVE ORGANIZATION. "Each tribe comprises 
inhabitants of the coast, and inhabitants of the interior, forming 
two great divisions, each having a great chief independent of 
the other. These two divisions are again divided into an in- 
definite number of little groups or communities of from twenty 
to fifty individuals, each with a secondary chief, who recog- 
nises the authority of the principal chief. But this authority 
does not amount to very much. Its privileges consist mainly 
in regulating the movements of the tribe or group and in or- 
ganising their assemblies and feasts. Moreover, neither the 
great nor the secondary chief can punish or reward. Their in- 
fluence, then, is entirely moral; but, for all that, it is none the 
less real and considerable, principally over the young un- 
married men ; who zealously serve the chiefs and do their 
hardest work for them. The office of chief is elective, but 
generally passes from father to son if the son has the desirable 
qualities. ' ' 2 

NEGRITOS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. "The Semang, who are the 
Negritos of the Malay Peninsula, live in the central portion of 
the Peninsula. The hair of the head is short, universally 
woolly, and black, and is scant on the face and body. The skin 
is a dark chocolate brown. The height is about five feet ; the 
skull is mesocephalic with a cephalic index of 79. The face 
is round, the forehead rounded, narrow and projecting, or as 
it were, 'swollen,' the nose short and flattened, the nostrils 
much distended, the breadth remarkably great." 3 The cheek- 
bones are broad, the jaws very prognathous, the lips thick. 
One characteristic feature is the great thickening of the integu- 
mental part of the upper lip, the whole mouth region projecting 
from the lower edge of the nose. 

LIFE CONDITIONS. The state of civilization to which 
these people have attained is very low. "They neither plant 
nor have they any manufactures except their rude bamboo and 
rattan vessels, the fish and game traps which they set with 
much skill, and the bows, blow-pipes (in which they use pois- 
oned darts), and bamboo spears with which they are armed. 
They are skilful hunters, however, catch fish by ingeniously 
constructed traps, and live almost entirely on jungle-roots and 
the produce of their hunting and fishing. ' ' 4 

1 Quatrefages, pp. 106-107. 

2 Quatrefages, p. 98. 

3 Wollaston, p. 306. 

4 Encycl. Brit, under Malay Peninsula, p. 473. 

[116] 



"The Semang construd bee-hive and long communal huts 
and weather screens similar tit t hose of the Andamanese. They 
also erect tree shelters, but direct evidence is very scanty that 
pure Semang' inhabit huts with a flooring raised on piles; they 

sleep on haniboo plat forms. '" 



NEGRITOS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. ' ' The Aeta live in the mountain- 
ous districts of the larger islands and in some of the smaller 
islands of the Philippines. It is convenient to retain this name 
for the variously named groups of Philippine Negritos, many 
of whom show admixture with other peoples."- The height of 
these people averages about 4 ft. 9^ in., the color of the skin is 
a dark chocolate brown, the head is brachycephalic with a 
cephalic index of 82.2, the hair is woolly and the adult males 
have a slight beard, but there is not much hair on the body. 
The nose is broad, flat, and depressed at the roots ; the nostrils 
are invariably visible from the front. The eyes are round and 
set far apart, the lips thick and everted, but not protruding, 
while the upper lip has the same convexity as seen in the 
Negritos of the Malay Peninsula. The arms are dispropor- 
tionately long and the lower extremities are slender. 

NUMBERS. "The number of Negritos in the Philippines 
can hardly exceed 25,000, and it is constantly diminishing from 
purely natural causes. In many regions their birth rate is 
known to be materially below their death rate, and in my 
opinion they must be regarded as a 'link' which is not now 
missing, but soon will be. Within my recollection they have 
disappeared from Cebu, Masbate, and Sibuyan. At last ac- 
counts but 14 individuals remained in Tablas, where they were 
formerly numerous. 

"Statements to the effect that Negritos build houses in 
trees are, so far as my personal observation and information 
go, without foundation in fact." 

LIFE CONDITIONS. The Negritos are essentially a wild 
and nomadic peoples living almost entirely on the vegetation of 
the forests and on the fish and game which they catch. The dog 
is their only domesticated animal, although around a good many 
of their encampments there are found a few wild chickens 
which are partially domesticated. Some few of these people 
have been known to plant corn and rice, 'but it is an uncommon 
occurrence. 

HOUSES. "The tiny settlements which we have visited 
were abandoned very hastily, but it was easy to obtain complete 



' Wollaston, p. 316. 
2 Wollaston, p. 306. 



[117] 



inventories of the property of their owners, which, even to the 
bows and arrows, was often left behind. The 'houses' were 
constructed by covering small rectangular frameworks of pole 
with a thin thatch of rattan leaves and grass. Each shelter 
thus made was inclined toward the sun, or wind or rain, and 
was held in a slanting position by a stick sharpened at one end 
and forked at the other, the sharpened end being pushed into 
the ground and the forked end placed against the shelter at or 
near its central point. 

"The smallest of these structures measured about four feet 
by five, the largest some eight feet by six. Hanging from them, 
or placed under them, were a few cocoanut shells ; an occasional 
earthen pot, usually broken; fish. lines equipped with stone 
sinkers and with bone or steel hooks ; an occasional small cast- 
ing net; a few bits of bark cloth; bows of Palma brava; arrows 
with heads of Palma brava, bamboo, or more rarely, of steel ; a 
few rude bolos; scraps of cheap cotton cloth, and nothing 
more I" 1 

CLOTHES AND BODY DECORATIONS. ' ' The men wear 
small clouts, and the women wear short skirts reaching from 
the waist to the knee. They are very fond of brightly colored 
cloth, scarlet being preferred, but the individuals who cannot 
get cloth, and there are many such, use instead the so-called 
'bark cloth' so widely employed by inhabitants of the islands 
of the Pacific. Men frequently shave the crowns of their 
heads 'in order to let the heat ouf !" 2 

"They do not tattoo their ibodies, but ornament them with 
scar patterns, produced by cutting through the skin with sharp 
pieces of bamboo and rubbing dirt into the wounds thus 
formed in order to infect them and make good big scars!" 3 

"Many of the Negritos point their front teeth, but not by 
filing them, as is commonly supposed. A chip of wood is held 
behind the tooth to be operated upon; the point of a bolo is 
placed in such a position as to slant across the corner of the 
tooth to be removed, and a sharp blow on the bolo chips a 
piece from the tooth. The opposite corner is similarly oper- 
ated upon, and an artistic point is thus produced ! 

MUSIC. "The music and dancing of the Negritos are espe- 
cially interesting. Many of them know how to make and to 
play both the bamboo nose-flute and a kind of jews '-harp made 
from bamlboo. Some of them use crude stringed instruments 
fashioned from single joints of bamboo, the strings being cut 
from the outer layer of wood, to which their ends remain 
attached, and being raised up by means of 'bridges.' The dis- 
tribution of the several kinds of musical instruments above 

1 Worcester, " Head Hunters of Northern Luzon." 23 Nat. Geog. 
Mag., Sept. 1912, p. 841. 

2 Worcester, pp. 838-841. 

3 Worcester, p. 838. 

[118] 



mentioned is more or less local, hut the bronze tom-tom, or 
'gansa,' is in universal use, although some Negritos play it 
with a drumstick, while others heat it with their hands. Many 
• if their dances are pantomimic. Their sin-jiii^ i s often weird 
in the extreme. It would he idle to attempt to describe it; 
only phonographic records could do it partial justice. 

DANCES. "There are many stories current to the effect 
that Negritos are often to be met with wandering through the 
forest in a state of absolute nudity, and that they indulge in 
various obscene dances. I am satisfied that the former series of 
tales are without foundation in "fact. Objectionable dances 
are very rare among the wild peoples of the Philippines, 
although they are sometimes indulged in by the Moros, and are 
common among the Manobos of Mindanao. One apparently 
credible witness, who was a surgeon in the United States Army, 
informed me that he had once witnessed such a dance among 
the Negritos in the wildest part of the Zambales Mountains. 
I have never observed anything of the sort, nor do I believe 
that such dances occur w T ith any degree of frequency among 
these peoples. 

HEAD-HUNTING. "Curiously enough, the head-hunting 
peoples of the the Philippines are apparently limited to north- 
ern Luzon. None of the warlike hill tribes inhabiting other 
parts of the archipelago are known to take the heads of their 
victims. 

"The explanation of their head-hunting customs which is 
given by the Negritos of northeastern Luzon is very simple. 
They believe that each family must take at least one head per 
year or suffer misfortune in the form of sickness, wounds, 
starvation, or death. Their victims are always beheaded with 
bolos. Heads are buried in the ground under the 'houses' of 
the men who take them. Plates, or ollas, are placed over the 
spots w r here the heads are buried, and possibly contain offer- 
ings to evil spirts. The houses under which heads are buried 
are then abandoned and their supposedly fortunate owners 
look forward to a period free from death, sickness, or injury, 
and to success in their hunting and fishing." 1 

PIGMIES OF NEW GUINEA. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. The stature of these people av- 
erages about 4 feet 9 inches ; the skin is a light brown ; the 
cephalic index is 79.5. The hair is short, wooll3 T , and black 
with a good deal on the face and a short downy hair scattered 
over the body. The nose is straight with wide nostrils; the 
eyes large and round. "Their prognathism and deeply lined 
faces give them an ape-like appearance." 2 

1 Worcester, pp. 847-850. 

2 Keane, p. 261. 

[119] 



LIFE CONDITIONS. The Pigmies of New Guinea are en- 
tirely a hunting people but conditions for carrying this on are 
so favorable that they remain in one spot for a long period. 
They do, however, cultivate tobacco which they not only smoke 
but also use for trade with other tribes. 

HOUSES. "The houses are scattered about over three or 
four acres of steeply sloping ground, from which most of the 
trees have been cleared. Between the houses the ground has been 
leveled in three places to form almost level terraces, measur- 
ing about fifteen by five yards, completely cleared of vegetation 
and covered with small stones. These terraces are held up on 
the lower side by logs and stumps of trees, and the labour of 
making them by people whose only tools are stone axes and 
pieces of wood is difficult to imagine ; they are used, so far as 
we could understand, for dances and other ceremonies. 

"The houses are greatly superior to those of the Mimika 
Papuans, from which they differ in every respect. They are 
built on piles, which raise the floor of the house, from four to 
ten feet above the ground according to the steepness of the 
slope underneath. The walls are made of long laths of split 
wood with big sheets of bark fastened on to the outside. The 
roof is a fairly steep pitched angular structure of split wood 
covered with over-lapping leaves of the Fan-palm. The floor 
is made like the walls and covered with large sheets of bark; 
in the middle of the floor is a square sunken box filled with 
sand or earth in which a fire is kept burning, and over the fire 
hanging from the roof is a simple rack, on which- wood is 
placed to dry. The house consists of one nearly square com- 
partment, measuring about ten feet in each direction. The way 
of entering is by a steep ladder made of two posts tied closely 
together, which leads to a narrow platform or balcony in front 
of the front wall of the house. There are no notches on the 
posts, but the lashings of rattan, which tie them together, 
answer the purpose of steps of rungs for the feet." 1 

FIRE. "By far the most interesting of the possessions of 
these people is the apparatus for making fire, which consists 
of three different parts, the split stick, the rattan, and the 
tinder. The split stick is a short stick of wood an inch or 
so in diameter, which is split at one end and is held open by a 
small pebble placed between the split halves. The rattan is 
a long piece of split rattan wound upon itself into a neatly 
coiled ring, and the tinder is usually a lump of the fibrous 
sheath of a palm shoot and sometimes a piece of dried moss. 

"The method of making fire is as follows: In the split 
of the stick, between the stone which holds the split ends apart 
and the solid stick, is placed a small fragment of tinder. The 
operator — if one may use so modern a word in describing so 
ancient a practice — places the stick upon the ground and 

1 WoUaston, pp. 204-205. 

[120] 



secures the solid, i.e. the imsplit end with his foot. Then, hav- 
ing unwound about a yard of the rattan, he holds the coil in 

one hand and the free end in the other and looping the middle 
of it underneath the stick at the point where the tinder is 
placed he proceeds to saw it hnckwards and forwards with ex- 
treme rapidity. In a short space of time, varying from ten 
to thirty seconds, the rattan snaps and he picks up the stick 
with the tinder, which has probably by this time begun to 
smoulder, and blows it into a flame. At the point where the 
rattan rubs on the stick a deep cut is made on the stick, and 
at each successive use the stick is split a little further down 
and the rattan is rubbed a little further back, so that a well- 
used fire-stick is marked with a number of dark burnt rings." 1 
ORNAMENTS. ' ' Their ornaments are few and simple ; a 
number of men wear arm-bands and leg-bands of plaited fibre 
similar to those w r orn by the Papuans, and several of them wear 
necklaces of seeds, short pieces of bamboo, scraps of broken 
shell, teeth of wallabies and (in one instance), the bones of a 
small mammal. The lobes of both ears are pierced and a few 
men wear in one ear an ornament made of a small piece of 
gourd to which are attached seeds, scraps of fur, claws of 
birds and other ornamental odds and ends. One young man, 
with more originality than the rest, thrust through his front 
hair a piece of sharpened bone, which projected downwards 
over his face and gave him a most distinguished appearance." 2 

1 Wollaston, pp. 200-201. 

2 Wollaston, p. 199. 



[121] 



CHAPTER XII. 



TIBETANS. 

GEOGRAPHY. "Tibet is geographically, roughly speaking, 
that section of Central Asia which extends between the 76° and 
102° of east longitude, from the 28° to 36° of north latitude, and 
with - the exception of its extreme western, southwestern and 
southern portions, it forms an integral portion of the Chinese 
Empire." 1 It is the highest country in the world, comprising 
table-lands averaging over 16,500 feet above the sea, the valleys 
being at 12,000 to 17,400 feet and the peaks at 20,000 to 24,600 
feet. "In the north, Tibet is composed of high plateaux, inter- 
sected by numerous chains of mountains running from east to 
west, a bleak arid country, either desert or inhabited by a scattered 
population of nomads. To the south of these pastoral tribes, and 
then only in the larger valleys live a sedentary people, who culti- 
vate the soil." 2 "It is bounded on the north by Turkestan, on 
the east by China, on the west by Kashmir and Ladak, and on the 
south by India, Nepal and Bhutan. It has an area of over 
1,000,000 square miles and an estimated population of about 
3,000,000." 3 

CLIMATE. "The climate of Tibet varies so greatly over the 
enormous area and different altitudes of the country, that no two 
travellers agree precisely in their records. Tibet is affected by the 
southwest monsoons, but in varying degrees according to geo- 
graphical position. In Western Tibet, bordering on the Kashmir 
frontier, intense dryness pervades the atmosphere during nine 
months of the year; but little snow falls, and the western passes 
are so little subject to intermittent falls of fresh snow as frequently 
to be traversable during the entire year. Low temperatures are 
prevalent throughout these western regions, whose bleak desola- 
tion is unrelieved by the existence of trees or vegetation of any 
size, and where the wind sweeps unchecked across vast expanses 
of arid plain. All the western region is but slightly affected by 
the monsoon. The central lake region, extending from the Kuen- 
lun to the Himalaya, is also characterized by extreme dryness in 
autumn, winter and spring, with an abundance of rain in the 
summer, whilst the eastern mountain region extending to China 
south of the Dang la is subject to much the same climatic influ- 
ences as the eastern Himalayas. The southern slopes of the 
Dang la are deluged with rain, hail and snow throughout the year. 
Northern Tibet is an arid waste, subject to intense heat in summer 
and intense cold in winter. The climate of Southern Tibet is 

1 W. W. Rockhill, " Ethnology of Tibet," p. 670. 

2 W. W. Rockhill, " The Land of the Lamas," p. 2. 

3 Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Tibet." 

[122] 



subject to considerable modifications from that of the northern 
and central regions, owing doubtless to its geographical connection 
with Northern India. Here at an elevation of 15,000 feet, about 
the great lake, Dangra, we hear of well-built villages and of richly 
cultivated fields of barley." 1 

THE PEOPLE OF TIBET. The people of Tibet probably 
belong to the Turko-Mongol branch of the human race. They 
are divided between the nomadic tent-dwellers, called Dokpa or 
Drupa, living in the lake region of the north and northwest, in 
the transition zone between it and the river region, and the 
settled sedentary population of the valleys. The Dokpa are more 
Mongolian in type than are the more settled people, who show 
much mixture with outside races. "These become more Chinese 
as one goes towards China, or more Indian as one travels south- 
ward or westward. The reason of the very pronounced departure 
of this portion of the present Tibetan population from its original 
type is easily accounted for in the custom of foreign traders, 
soldiers, pilgrims, or officials inhabiting the country, of never 
bringing their wives into Tibet, but taking native concubines, a 
custom, by the way, common in most parts of Asia. In as small 
a population as that of Tibet, where the principal centers of popu- 
lation are and have been inhabited by comparatively large num- 
bers of foreigners for several centuries at least, this profound 
alteration of the primitive type is easily accounted for in this 
manner." 2 

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE PEOPLE. Among the 
Drupa Tibetans the males measure 5 feet, 5 inches; the females 
not appreciably less. The head is brachycephalic ; the hair on 
the head, when worn, is black and invariably wavy, the beard is 
thin, the moustache is usually pulled out with tweezers; there is 
almost no hair on the chest and limbs. The eyes are clear brown 
or hazel; zygomatic arches are high, but not as high as the Mon- 
gol's; the nose is thick, sometimes depressed at the root, in other 
cases prominent, even aquiline, though the nostrils are broad; the 
ears, with fairly large lobes, stand out from the head, but to a 
less degree than with the Mongols; the mouth is broad, the lips 
not full, and among the people of the lower altitudes, decidedly 
thin. The shoulders are broad, the arms normal, while the legs 
are not well developed, the calf being especially small. The foot 
is large and the hand coarse. 

The women are usually stouter than the men and their faces 
are much fuller. They are as strong, or perhaps even stronger 
than the men, because, obliged to do hard work from childhood, 
their muscles are more fully developed than those of the men, 
who neither carry water on their backs, work at looms, nor tend 
the cattle. The women's hair is long and coarse, but not very 
thick, and in old age it is sprinkled with white hairs. 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

2 Rockhill, " Ethnographic Notes," p. 674. 

[123] 



There is very little, if any, perceptible odor about the Tibetan's 
person, save that which is readily traced to dirty clothes. Partial 
baldness in both sexes is not uncommon. They keep their heads 
tolerably clean by frequently anointing their hair and scalp with 
butter, but vermin are common among them, especially with the 
women, and it is a very common sight to see a number of them 
crouching before their houses in the .sun, cleaning the head of a 
husband, a child, or a friend; all captives belong to the original 
owner, who eats them with relish, saying, "As they live on me, 
they cannot be unclean food for me, though they might be for 
anyone else." Washing the body is never, or hardly ever, indulged 
in, except involuntarily when fording a stream, or when drenched 
by the rain. 1 

The Tibetans can endure exposure without any apparent 
inconvenience. In the coldest weather they will slip the upper 
part of their bodies out of their sheepskin gowns in order to per- 
form their work with a greater degree of freedom. The women do 
nearly all of their work with the right side of the body completely 
exposed, and they put no clothes on very small children, except 
in the coldest weather, allowing them to go about naked, or with 
only a pair of boots on. 

They can also endure hunger, and are at all times light eaters. 
They eat a little whenever they drink their tea, but they never 
take a hearty meal, staving off continually the pangs of hunger. 
Though the nature of the food which they use is such that they 
cannot endure absolute privation from all food for any considerable 
length of time, they can with ease travel for long periods on starv- 
ation rations. 

CHARACTER OF PEOPLE. The character of the Tibetans 
is well described by Father Desgodins, who lived for many years 
among them. "It appears to me that the Tibetan, no matter 
who he may be, is essentially a slave to human respect. If he 
believes you great, powerful and rich, there is nothing he will not 
do to obtain your good will, your favors, your money, or even a 
simple mark of your approval. If he has only something to hope 
for, he will receive you with all the signs of the most profound 
submission or of the most generous cordiality, according to cir- 
cumstances, and will make you interminable compliments, using 
the most fulsome and the most honied expressions that the human 
mind has been able to invent. In this line he might give points to 
the most accomplished flatterer of Europe. If, on the contrary, 
he thinks you of low station, he will only show you stiffness, or, 
at the most, formal, unwilling politeness. Should your fortune 
change, have you become a beggar in his eyes, abandoned and 
without authority, he at once turns against you, treats you as a 
slave, takes the side of your enemies, without being ashamed at 
the remembrance of his former protestations of devotion and 
friendship, without listening to the dictates of gratitude. He is a 

1 Rockhill, " Ethnographic Notes," p. 675. 

[124] 



slave toward the great, a despot to the small, whoever they may 
be, dutiful or treacherous, according to circumstances, looking 
always for some way to cheat, and lying shamelessly to attain his 
cud; in a word, naturally and essentially a false character. Such is, 
1 think, the Tibetan of the cultivated countries of the south, who 
considers himself much more civilized than the shepherd or herds- 
man of the north, with whom I have had but little intercourse, 
and of whom I do not pretend to draw the portrait. 

"One readily understands that with such a character, with 
dissolute habits, the Tibetan becomes easily cruel and vindictive. 
Often discussion, begun in laughter and usually while drinking, 
ends with drawn knives. If he has not appeased his anger, he 
never forgives. Revenge alone can pacify him, if he believes him- 
self insulted. But he does not show it at first. On the contrary, 
he affects to live on good terms with his enemy. He invites him, 
trades in preference with him, but he will put a ball in his chest 
after a good dinner, during which he has shown himself most 
friendly and has sworn the other lasting friendship. 

"Such are the principal faults of the Tibetan. What are his 
virtues? I believe his mind is instinctively religious, and this 
leads him to willingly perform certain external devotional prac- 
tices and even to go on long and trying pilgrimages, which cost 
him, however, but little money. As to religious convictions, he 
has absolutely none, a result of the profound ignorance in which 
the lamas leave the people, either on account of their incapacity 
to teach them, or perhaps so as to keep the business of worship 
in their own hands, as it insures them a large revenue. The re- 
ligious acts of the people are only performed through routine; 
they do not understand them or care to understand them; hence 
ignorance in the lower classes, scepticism and indifference in the 
others, principally among the mandarins and lamas. The Tib- 
etan's other virtues are nearly all material ones, if I may use such 
an expression; thus, he bears with ease and for long periods cold, 
fatigue, hunger and thirst; but if he finds good compensation for 
his sufferings, he will never overlook it. He is generally active, 
but less industrious than the Chinese, and arts have advanced 
much less in Tibet than in China. While at work, he sings without 
a care; at a feast, he goes gossiping about and drinking with his 
friends; he sings, dances and drinks during the night without a 
recollection of the sorrows of the day before, or without thinking 
of the cares of the morrow. Such is the Tibetan as I have known 
him." 1 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. "The food of the tent-dwelling 
Tibetans consists principally of tea and barley. The latter they 
buy from the agricultural Tibetans in exchange for butter, hides 
or wool. The grain is parched in a pan and winnowed, when most 
of the husk falls off; after this it is ground in a small quern when 

1 C. H. Desgodins, " Le Thibet," pp. 251-253, quoted by Rockhill, 
" Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," pp. 676-677. 

[125] 



it is ready for use. Tea is, however, the principal article of food 
among all Tibetans. It is not simply the beverage, but the food 
of this people, for it is nearly invariably taken mixed with butter 
and barley, and the leaves are not infrequently eaten." 1 

The tea is made into bricks before it is sold, and in some parts 
is the standard of the monetary system. In preparing the beverage 
from these bricks, it is first reduced to a powder in a mortar, then 
put in the kettle with hot water and allowed to boil for about 
five minutes. Sometimes it is drunk at this stage of its preparation 
either clear or with the addition of milk, but usually it is strained 
into a tea churn, into which is also put a piece of butter and a 
little barley. It is then churned and finally poured into a teapot 
of metal 'or pottery. Each person takes from the bosom of his 
gown a small wooden bowl, a little tea is sprinkled to the four 
cardinal points as an offering to the gods, and the bowls are then 
filled. "Taking with his fingers a chunk of butter from a sheep's 
paunch in which it is kept, or from a wooden butter box, the 
drinker lets it melt in his bowl, drinking the while some of the tea, 
and blowing the melted butter to one side. When but a little tea 
is left in the bottom of the bowl, a handful of barley is added and 
the tea, butter and meal are deftly worked into a ball with the 
right hand, the bowl being meanwhile slowly turned around in 
the left. The resulting lump of brown dough, which is of a rather 
agreeable taste, if the butter is not too rancid, is then eaten and 
enough tea is drunk to wash down the sodden lump. When dried 
cheese is eaten, it is first soaked in tea and then eaten with buttered 
tea and barley." 2 

If one eats anything such as sour milk, which may soil the bowl, 
it is customary to lick it clean before putting it back into the gown. 

The Tibetans have no regular meals, but as the teakettle is 
always kept full, they can eat when they are hungry. People like 
the lamas who are continually reading the sacred books, and 
others who are steadily employed during the day, keep near them 
a pot of tea on a heap of hot ashes or on a little brasero. "Through- 
out Tibet it is not uncommon to now and then find poor people 
reduced to using a substitute for tea — chips of wood, roasted 
pease, or willow leaves, anything, in fact, which can impart a 
little color and slight astringent taste to their drink." 3 

Pork is never eaten by the tent-dwelling Tibetans, but it is 
used to a great extent by the people of central and eastern Tibet, 
but mutton and yak flesh form the greater part of the meat food. 
The sheep-raising Tibetans export much frozen mutton, while they 
themselves consume large quantities of dried mutton. 

Such vegetables as cabbage, dried turnips, radishes, potatoes, 
pease and beans are eaten in small quantities, but of all foods 
they prefer tea and barley. 

1 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," pp. 702-703. 

2 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 705. 

3 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 703. 

[126] 



AGRICULTURE. Where agriculture is practiced, the only 
implements they have are a wooden hoe and a rude plow without 
even a share. This plough is drawn by a yak, and while one man 
leads the animal, another guides the plough. They irrigate the 
fields, the water frequently being carried a long distance across 
valleys in hollowed logs supported on light trestles. The fields 
arc fenced in with brush, poles or stone walls. 

INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. "In all parts of Tibet, 
whether among the pastoral tribes or in the towns and villages, 
the women not only do most of the household work, but they 
attend to much of the bartering, make the butter, assist in milking 
the cows and looking after the flocks. The men, aided by the 
women, work in the fields, or go on distant journeys, hiring out 
their yaks or mules to carry freight, or hiring themselves out as 
mule or yak drivers to merchants or to some neighboring lamasery. 
Those who remain in their town or village sometimes follow a 
trade which occupies them during a small portion of their time. 
Some are smiths, working silver, copper or iron, and, when needs 
be, becoming carpenters, gunsmiths or locksmiths; others, again, 
occupy themselves, when industriously inclined, twisting yarn, 
weaving garters, or making felt. In the towns nearly all shops 
are kept by women. 

"Although the division of labor between the sexes is very 
unequal, much the greater part devolving upon the women, the 
position of that sex is not affected injuriously thereby. The 
wife's opinion is always asked in household matters and in ques- 
tions of trade, and her authority in the house is supreme. She 
joins with the men in all discussions with perfect freedom and 
assurance, and in nearly every walk of life she is held to be on a 
footing of perfect equalitv by the male sex." 1 

DWELLINGS. The * dwellings of the Tibetans are of two 
kinds — -the tent and the stone huts. The tents made of yak-hair 
felt are inhabited by the pastoral tribes, but the agriculturists 
occupy the more permanent habitations. The tents are rectang- 
ular and have a flat roof. They vary in length from ten to fifty 
feet, but all of them have a hole along the center of the roof, about 
two feet wide, to admit light and let the smoke escape. Under 
this is a ridge pole supported at each end by vertical posts. The 
roof is fastened by long ropes, which stretch to the ground. In 
order to keep off the wind and snow the inmates build a low wall 
of mud and stones, or else of dry dung, around the outside of the 
tent, or, when large enough, inside of it. 

'Tn the center of the tent is a long, narrow stove made of mud 
and stones, with a fire place in one end and a flue passing along 
its whole length, so that several pots may be kept boiling at the 
same time. Around the walls of the tents are piled up leather 
bags in which the occupants keep their food; also saddles, pieces 
of felt, and innumerable odds and ends, of which only the owner 

1 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 682. 

[127] 



knows the value and use. A small stone or birch wood mortar 
for pounding tea, a wooden tea churn about two feet high — made 
of a hollow log and hooped with wood, or out of a joint of bamboo, 
which are, in some parts, used also to churn butter in — a few 
small dirty wooden milk pails with handles of plaited yak hair, a 
log or two of wood roughly squared, and which takes the place of 
tables, and a small quern are the principal articles of furniture in 
these tents." 1 

The houses of the agricultural peoples are made of limestone 
or shaly rock, the surface of which is covered with a coating of 
mud or plaster. A large gateway with heavy double doors leads 
into the courtyard, around which are the buildings and sheds. 
These houses are also two-storied, a notched log of wood set 
against the wall serving as a ladder to reach the upper one. The 
roof of the first floor, which is made of mud and rests on heavy 
rafters, acts as a gallery to reach the upper one. Holes are left 
in this so that the smoke can escape from the rooms below, and 
in the case of inside rooms, these holes are the only means by 
which light is admitted. When there are windows, they are 
merely openings about three feet square in the walls, without any 
means of keeping out the wind and cold, except in the finest houses, 
where heavy boards sliding in grooves are used to close them. 
There is absolutely no furniture ; sometimes a log of wood roughly 
squared is found near the hearth; this is used to place one's cup 
on, but as a rule, even this crude table is lacking. Some of the 
houses contain furnaces, on which kettles boil over a dung fire; 
in others, there are large, open hearths — in the center of each are 
three stories on which to rest the pots. "The simplicity of the 
nomad is found in all the appointments of the agricultural Ti- 
betan's home. In many of the houses there are not more than 
two or three four-walled rooms, all the rest of the building con- 
sisting of covered galleries opening on the courtyard. These 
have the great advantage of being better lighted and more airy 
than rooms, yet hardly colder; they are also freer from vermin, 
with which one is fearfully tormented everywhere in Tibet, fleas 
especially swarming. The ground floor of all of these houses is 
used as a horse stable, as is often the case in mountainous and 
cold countries, Switzerland, for example, and every house is 
provided with well arranged latrines. It is probable that the heat 
from the horses, which is sufficient to raise the temperature of 
the room over their stable, suggested the idea of having them 
under the dwelling-room." 2 

DRESS AND ORNAMENT. The national dress of both sexes 
consists of a very full, high-collared, large and long-sleeved gown, 
made of sheepskin in winter, and of native cloth in summer. It 
is tied tightly around the waist with a woolen girdle, so as to 
make it very baggy, and it reaches down to the knees when worn 

1 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 702. 

2 Rockhill, " The Land of the Lamas," pp. 192-194. 

[128] 



by men and to the ankles when worn by women. In a large part 
of the country this is the only garment worn. The collar and 
cuffs and hems are sometimes faced with black velvet or red or 
blue cloth or with otter or leopard skin. High boots complete 
the costume. 

The men shave their heads, but the women braid their hair 
into numerous pigtails. Men's hats vary from a low cap of cloth 
to one made of fur, or to one resembling the hats worn by the 
women in Wales. 

Most of the men wear a large silver ring set with turquoise 
and coral beads in the left ear, "while the women wear heavy 
pendants in each ear. Around their necks the men and women 
wear charm boxes made of wood, silver, copper or leather, in 
which they carry charms against the various accidents which may 
overtake them. Both sexes wear rings made of gold or silver and 
set with turquoise or coral beads. Most of the ornaments worn 
by the women are put into the hair and include bright bits of 
cloth, coral and glass beads and silver bands. 

MARRIAGE. In some portions of Western Tibet marriage 
by capture still survives. When the bridegroom and his friends 
go to bring the bride from her father's house, they are met by a 
party of the bride's friends and relations, who stop the path. A 
very rough sham fight ensues, in which the bridegroom and his 
friends, before they are allowed to pass, are given a sound beating 
with thick switches. 

"In other parts of Tibet the preliminaries of marriage are very 
similar to those of China. Go-betweens on the part of the man 
make overtures to the family of the girl, and if these are well 
received, astrologers are consulted to see whether the horoscope 
of the man and woman do not antagonize each other, and if the 
good and evil of the life of the male harmonizes in the calculation 
with those of the life of the female, longevity is counted upon. 
If not, the happiness of the couple will be short-lived." 1 A man 
frequently has to pay as much as 300 sheep, 10 horses and 10 yak 
for a fine-looking girl, so the parents of two or three pretty and 
clever girls are sure of making their fortune. 

The marriage ceremony takes place at the house of the groom. 
When the bride enters, the mother of the groom presents her with 
the barley mixed with butter and a jar of milk. The whole party 
then sits down to dinner, which is supplied by the groom and his 
friends. When it is finished, the priest gives the bride a new name 
and she is presented with a piece of wool by the groom. This 
she twists into a thread as the sign of the first work of a harmonious 
union. Before the departure of the bride's family, both parties 
sing repartee songs together. 

In some parts of Tibet, polyandry prevails. The elder brother 
chooses a wife, and the younger brothers possess her in common. 
Whatever may have been the origin of this, there can be little 

1 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 725. 

[129] 



doubt that poverty, a desire to keep down population and to keep 
property undivided in families, supply sufficient reasons to justify 
its continuance. Perhaps the property reason is the most im- 
portant. "The tillable lands are of small extent and are all under 
cultivation so it is extremely difficult for any one to add to his 
fields, which as a general rule produce only enough to support 
one small family. If at the death of the head of the family the 
property was divided among the sons, there would not be enough 
to supply the wants of all of them, if each had a wife and family. 
Moreover, the paternal abode would not accommodate them." 
The only solution of the problem in this case was for the sons of 
a family to take one wife among them, by which means their 
ancestral estate remained undivided, and they also saved con- 
siderable money. 1 

PLEASURES. Horse-racing is one of their favorite pastimes, 
but they do not understand this amusement as we do, confining 
themselves rather to showing off their horses and themselves in 
their finest trappings, or else racing by twos or threes, but not 
for a purse or any reward. 

"Singing, a pastime of which they are very fond, is not much 
more agreeable to the foreign ear than is that of the Chinese or 
Japanese, though the Tibetans' voices are often full and sweet, 
and there is frequently a perceptible tune in their songs. 

"Dancing is also a favorite amusement, especially in the spring 
of the year, when the girls go in large parties and dance on the 
soft green grass under the trees, the young men forming apprecia- 
tive spectators. The dances can hardly be called graceful; two 
groups formed, and while one stood still, the other, to the music 
of their own singing, danced slowly backward and forward, swaying 
their bodies and taking high, slow steps. Then the other group 
had their turn, and so the dance went on by the hour." 2 

There are many story-tellers who wander from place to place 
reading to the people, who are unable to do so for themselves, 
from the literature of the country. Where possible, they act out 
the story which they are reading or telling, and this forms the 
nearest approach which the people have to dramatic representa- 
tion. There are, however, mummers, mostly boys, who, with 
hideous masks on their heads, dance a grotesque dance. At the 
same time they sing a song which praises in the most fulsome way 
the person before whom they are dancing, with the hope that they 
may be well paid. 

RELIGION. Buddhism was introduced into Tibet in the 
seventh century, A. D., and since that time has been the religion 
of the country. In its present form, however, it is difficult to 
find any of the simplicity which characterized its earlier forms, 
for demonolatry and mysticism have become the important 
features. The priests of this religion are called Lamas, and hence 

1 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," p. 211. 

2 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," p. 247. 

[130] 



it comes about that this peculiar form of Buddhism as held by 
the Tibetans is known as Lamaism. 

The Lamas play an important part in the life of the people, 
for they are not only the religious leaders, but also wield greal 
temporal power. "In their hands is nearly all the wealth of the 
land, acquired by trading, donations, money-lending and bequests. 
Their landed property is frequently enormous; their serfs and 
bondsmen swarm." 1 If they are not able to carry out their wishes 
by peaceful means, they do not hesitate to take upon themselves 
the attitude of the Knights Templar. "The large lamaseries are 
rather fortified camps than the abodes of peace-loving Buddhist 
monks; every lama is well-armed, well mounted, and always 
ready for the fray; whether it be to resist the local chiefs, or the 
Chinese, or to attack a rival lamasery." 

Although the Tibetans are a very religious people, yet they 
have few ceremonies of a religious character in their daily life. 
One of the commonest is the evening prayer. "As night falls, 
lamps are lit on the altars of every Buddhist temple, and a short 
service is chanted, while lamas seated on the porch play a rather 
mournful hymn on long coffer horns and clarinets. This is the 
signal for the housewives to light bundles of aromatic juniper 
boughs in the ovens made for the purpose on the roofs of their 
houses, and as the fragrant smoke ascends to heaven, they sing a 
hymn or litany in which the men of the house often join." 

It is a universal custom among this people, before eating or 
drinking anything, to dip the forefinger of the right hand in it and 
scatter a little of the contents towards the four cardinal points, 
reciting a short prayer the while. This and the mumbling of the 
many prayers or some special formula given them by a lama, are 
practically the only religious observances of the people. It is no 
uncommon thing to pass a family established under a tent in a 
locality where shaly stones are abundant, every member busily 
occupied incising on slabs of rock the sacred formula, and building 
up after months, perhaps years, of labor a "mani woll," each stone 
in it having the prayer sculptured on it and frequently carefully 
painted. These walls are sometimes over a hundred yards long 
and ten feet high. "Others will shape the letters composing the 
prayer with blocks of white stones on some far-seen mountain 
side, giving them such huge dimensions, that they can be read 
four or five miles away. 

"Small stones on which the prayer is sculptured are continually 
offered to one by beggars, who are paid for them by a handful of 
tsamba or a little tea, and a person of any respectability never 
dreams of refusing to buy all offered to him, placing them along 
the walls of his house, or else on the nearest mani woll." 2 

Most of the Tibetans possess prayer wheels. These wheels 
consist of circular pieces of metal with a handle on the bottom by 
means of which the wheel can be revolved. Inside of this metal 

1 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," pp. 215-216. 

2 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," pp. 249-250. 

[1311 



ring are placed yards and yards of paper on which are written 
numerous prayers. When a man is feeling especially religious and 
desires to store up for himself much credit in the next world he 
revolves the wheel. A prayer is supposed to ascend for each 
revolution so that in a short time a person has thousands of prayers 
to his credit. This is a most convenient mode of praying, for a 
person may do it while walking along the street, or even while 
visiting with his friends. 

DEATH AND FUNERALS. "The old are but little respected, 
and it often occurs that a son kills his father when he has become 
a burden to him. It also frequently happens that when a person 
is dying, a relative or friend asks him, 'Will you come back or will 
you not?' If he replies that he will, they pull a leather bag over 
his head and smother him; if he says he will not, he is allowed to 
die in peace. The probable explanation of this custom is a fear 
that the spirit of the dead will haunt its former abode. 

"The remains of the dead are exposed on the hillsides in spots 
selected by lamas ; if the body is rapidly devoured by wild beasts 
and birds of prey, the righteousness of the deceased is held to be 
evident, but if it remains a long time undevoured, his wickedness 
is proved." 1 

"No funeral services take place before the crops have been 
gathered, except in the case of very poor people, whose corpses 
are thrown into the streams at once after death. All those whose 
bodies are to be disposed of by cremation or by being fed to the 
birds or dogs are put in wicker baskets, well salted, and kept until 
the time of the funeral. In the case of the bodies of rich laymen, 
which have been cremated, the ashes are sometimes collected in 
a box and a do-bong built over it, but generally they are left on 
the spot where the cremation took place. When the body is to be 
devoured by dogs and birds of prey, the usual method is to lay 
the naked corpse on the ground, fastening it by a rope to a stake 
so that it cannot be dragged about. But there is another more 
desirable mode sometimes followed, as was done some years ago 
with the body of the 'living Buddha' at Lit'ang. This was carried 
out of the lamasery on a stretcher which was followed by the 
abbot and his 3,500 monks. Many of the latter had human jaw- 
bones fastened to their left arms, and skull bowls hanging from 
their sides. The procession marched slowly to the top of a hill 
outside the town; the corpse was laid on the ground, and the 
abbot took his seat on a stone nearby. Then some lamas stripped 
the flesh off the body, commencing with the arms, and handed 
the pieces to the abbot. 

"These he held at arm's length in the air, when vultures, which 
were sailing around in expectation of the feast, swooped down and 
snatched them from his hand. In this manner all but the bones 
were disposed of; then these were pounded into a pulp, and the 
abbot mixed this with tsamba in his eating bowl, and fed the balls 
thus made to the birds, reserving for his own private delectation 

1 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," p. 81. 

[132] 



the last ball of the unsavory mess. With (his the ceremonies were 
at an end. This form of obsequies, known as 'celestial interment' 
is the most esteemed."' 

GOVERNMENT. "Politically Tibet may be divided into 
three parts: (1) Country under direct Lh'asan rule or influence; 
(2) country under Chinese rule or influence; (3) country under 
British or other rule or influence. The first part comprises all 
central, western and most of the northern portions of the country. 
The second part includes all northeastern Tibet, most of the 
eastern, and a long narrow strip called Jyade. The third part 
includes Sikhina, Bhutan and Ladak." 2 

The spiritual and temporal ruler of the Kingdom of Lh'asa is 
called Tale lama, and is an incarnation of the god Shenrazig, 
the patron saint of the land. Prior to 1720 the Tale lama was 
only spiritual ruler of Tibet, but at that date he was made also 
temporal ruler by the Chinese. Under him is a regent, colloquially 
called 'King of Tibet,' who is also a lama, chosen in turn from 
one of the four great monasteries of Lh'asa, and whose appoint- 
ment is made, like that of the Tale lama himself and of all other 
high dignitaries of the state, subject to the approval of the Em- 
peror of China. This regent is president of the Council of Ministers 
who are five in number, one lama and four laymen. These ad- 
minister the laws of the country and act also in a judicial capacity. 

The second portion of Tibet, which is under Chinese influence, 
is ruled over by hereditary chiefs, and by the influential headmen 
of the country who have been appointed by the Emperor. These 
men receive a yearly payment from China of 100 ounces of silver, 
and also have the privilege of sending tribute to Peking, which 
gives them the right to trade under very favorable conditions. 

In the third section the rule is divided between a temporal and a 
spiritual advisor, who are appointed under approval of the English. 

LAW AND PUNISHMENT. "There exists no written law 
for the administration of justice; tradition is the only code fol- 
lowed. Confiscation and fines are the penalties imposed for most 
crimes and offences, murder not excepted. These fines comprise 
(1) a sum of money, or number of bricks of tea, determined ac- 
cording to the social standing of the victim in case of murder, 
which fine goes to the state; (2) a fixed sum for the family of the 
victim, nominally to pay for the performance of religious cere- 
monies for the deceased. 

"Among some of the tribes the murderer of a man of the upper 
class is fined 120 bricks of tea; for the murder of a middle-class 
man he is fined 80 bricks, for killing a woman 40 bricks, and so 
on down through the social scale, the murderer of a beggar or a 
wandering foreigner being fined only a nominal amount, 3 or 4 
bricks. In case the victim is a lama, the murderer has often to 
pay 200 to 300 bricks." 3 

1 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," pp. 286-287. 

2 Rockhill, " Notes on Ethnology of Tibet," p. 680. 

3 Rockhill, " Land of the Lamas," p. 221. 

[133] 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE YAKUTS. 

ENVIRONMENT. Yakutsk is a province of East Siberia 
including most of the basin of the river Lena and covering an 
area of about 1,530,253 square miles, equal to about two-fifths 
the area of the United States without Alaska. It is bounded on 
the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the provinces of 
Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, on the south by Irkutsk and Amur, and is 
separated from the Pacific by the narrow Maritime Province. 
The southeastern portion of Yakutsk is made up of a plateau 
2,500 to 3,500 feet in height. " Its moist, elevated valleys, inter- 
sected by ranges of flat dome-shaped hills, which rise nearly 1,000 
feet above the plateau, form an immense desert of forest and 
marsh. An alpine country skirts the plateau all along its north- 
west margin and contains the productive gold mines in the spurs 
between the Vitim and the Lena. The latter stream drains the 
outer base of this alpine region. It is a wild land, traversed by 
chains of mountains, all having a northeast strike, and intersected 
by deep, narrow valleys, down which the mountain streams tumble 
uncontrolled. The whole is clothed with dense forests, through 
which none but the Tunguses can find their way. The summits 
of the mountains, 4,000 to 6,000 feet, mostly rise above the limits 
of tree vegetation, but in no case pass the snow line. The summits 
and slopes alike are strewn with debris of crystalline rock, mostly 
hidden under thick incrustations of lichens, amid which the 
larch alone is able to find sustenance. Birch and aspera grow on 
the lower slopes; and in the narrow valley bottoms thickets of 
poplar and willow, or patches of grass spring up on the scanty 
alluvium." 

In the southwest there are vast meadows which are sometimes 
marshy, while further north mosses and lichens are predominant 
vegetation and stretch from the meadows to the shores of the 
ice-bound ocean. 1 

CLIMATE. This region is colder than any other part of the 
inhabited globe. At one place the temperature of ■ — 79.5° F. has 
been observed, while the average temperature for the three winter 
months is — 53.1° F. At the town of Yakutsk the average tem- 
perature in winter is — 40.2° F. and the soil is frozen to a depth 
of 600 feet. There are only 145 days when there is no snow 
on the ground. The Lena river is free from ice only 161 days of 
the year. The interval between the latest frost of one season and 
the earliest frost of the next is 37 days. 

HISTORY. " The Yakuts belong to the Turkish stock, and 
speak a dialect of Turkish with an admixture of Mongolian words. 

1 Encycl. Brit, under Yakutsk, p. 898. 

[134] 



They call themselves Sokha or Sakhov, their present name having 
been borrowed by the Russians from the Tunguses, who call 
them Yeko or Yekot. Most probably they once inhabited south- 
ern Siberia, especially the upper Yenisei, where a Tartar tribe 
calling itself Sakha still survives in Minusinck." ' 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. The Yakuts are middle sized, with 
dolichocephalic skulls, very high cheek bones, narrow slanting 
eyes, broad flat nose. The face is diamond shaped. The hair 
on the head is black, thick and long, but there is very little on the 
face and body. 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. The people are almost entirely on 
the cattle-raising stage, for the character of the country is such 
that agriculture is impossible. 

" The economic unit amongst the Yakuts, taking the whole 
territory into account, consists of four persons — two grown 
labourers, one youth, and one boy or old man incompetent to do 
full work. Ten head of cattle are regarded as indispensable for 
the maintenance of such a group. Above that norm the Yakuts 
think that comfort begins, and below it, poverty. In those dis- 
tricts where fish can be obtained as an adjunct, those who have 
ten head of cattle are well off; but where neither hunting nor 
fishing offers additional resources, fifteen or twenty head of cattle 
are indispensable to secure the existence of a family. The latter 
is the case in the north, on account of the duration of the winter 
and the badness of the meadows. In the south, where tillage is 
available as an important subsidiary industry to maintain life, 
and where it is easy to find wages occupations in winter, the 
limit of independent means of existence falls to one and a half 
head of cattle per soul. In spite, therefore, of the wide difference 
between the absolute amounts of wealth indicated by these limits 
■ — from six to twenty head of cattle, i. e., from 120 to 400 rubles - 
($60 to $200) of capital — all the households that are at the limit 
stand on the verge of distress. The least accident overthrows 
the security of their existence, and the least subsidiary resource 
gives them a chance to live and grow. Such households constitute 
the great mass of the population." 3 

" In case a family possess less than one head of cattle per soul 
they must hire themselves out for wages. The rate of wages 
is usually everywhere the same. The men get from 35 to 40 rubles 
per annum with board, if they are able bodied mowers; and 
women who rake, or tend cows, get from 20 to 24 rubles, with 
board. The rations are determined by custom; those of the men 
are better than those of the women. Only a small part of the 
wages is paid in money; generally the employers give wares, 
sometimes such as the employe does not need and which he must 
sell at a loss. It is still more customary to pay with cattle, 

1 Encycl. Brit., p. 899. 

2 Ruble — about 50c. 

3 W. G. Sumner, "The Yakuts," p. 65. 

[135] 



especially with horses, either slaughtered or living. The employers 
try to keep the employed in debt to themselves, and to this end 
even encourage them in vice — for instance, in gambling. Often 
an employer retains a portion of the wages and threatens not to 
pay it at all if the labourer does not consent to work for him still 
another year. It is not difficult for rich men to execute such 
an injustice as this, on account of the power which they possess 
in all Yakut communities. The scarcity of labourers is the cause 
of this conduct of the employers, but it also causes them, when 
once they have hired persons, to treat them well. In families 
in moderate circumstances, employes are taken in on an equal 
footing. In the north, even in the richest households, if no strangers 
are present, the employe sits at the table with the family. He 
takes part in the conversation and in household proceedings. 
His intercourse with the members of the family is simple and free 
from constraint. The Yakuts are generally polite in their inter- 
course, and do not like haughtiness. Employes expect the cus- 
tomary courtesy." 1 

" The Yakuts dislike to hire themselves out for wages. They 
return to independence if the least possibility offers. For those 
who are poor the struggle for independence is so hard that it is 
useless to talk about their laziness or lack of forethought. If 
they have less than one and a half head of cattle per soul, they 
suffer from hunger nearly all their lives. When dying of hunger, 
they refrain from slaughtering an animal, from fear of losing 
their independence. There are cases in which the authorities 
have forced people to slaughter their cattle that they might be 
saved from death by starvation. Hunger periods occur in every 
year, during which two-thirds of the Yakut population suffer 
from semi-starvation for a longer or shorter time. This period 
is not longer than a few weeks for those whose cattle were tol- 
erably well nourished, so that in spring they quickly recovered 
their vigour, or for those who have such a number of cows that 
the latter produce calves at different times. The poor, however, 
suffer hunger for months, during which they live by the alms 
of their more fortunate neighbors. For them the most interesting 
subject of conversation is, Whose cow has calved? or, Whose 
cow will soon do so? Sometimes it happens that all the cows 
in a certain neighborhood calve at the same time; then, if there 
is in that district no tillage, or if the grain harvest has failed, 
famine ensues. Poor people when asked how they managed to 
live through those frightful months said. ' We go to bed and cover 
ourselves with the coverlet.' They drink brick-tea and a decoc- 
tion of various herbs, and eat splinters of larch or pine, if they 
still have a stock of them. They cannot obtain them in winter. 
No axe could then split the wood, which is frozen to the hardness 
of stone. Where they plant grain, and the harvest is fair, the 
circumstances are less stringent. On the whole, therefore, the 

1 The Yakuts, p. 66. 

[136] 



dependence on chance is almost tragical. If things that must be 
purchased rise in price to the slightest degree, if one neighbor 
has deceived another, or the merchant has cheated in weight, 
or if calves have died, any of these incidents come as heavy 
blows upon the barely established equilibrium of the family 
budget. A few such blows throw the household into the abyss 
of debt, from which it randy, or with great exertion, emerges. 
Two-thirds of the families are in debt; one half of them for small 
amounts which can be repaid, but the other half are hopelessly 
indebted, the debts consuming the- income year by year. Even 
amongst those who are called rich, the expenditure rarely sur- 
passes two or three hundred rubles per year, and this they cannot 
win without hired labour, because the care of the herds which 
are large enough to produce this amount far surpasses the power 
of an average Yakut family; therefore, only a large one, with 
well combined forces, can get along without hired labour. There 
are but few such families, and any co-operative organization 
is strange to the Yakuts. They prefer to work individually at 
their personal risk and chances." 1 

" In former times, when the chief wealth of the Yakuts con- 
sisted in droves of horses, the size and the conditions of subdivision 
or combination of the sib groups were entirely different. In that 
distant time we must believe that the consumption on the spot 
of products which had been obtained from the droves, or from hunt- 
ing, served as the external condition of the existence and size of 
a sib group. Many traditions point to this fact. For instance, 
they tell us that if a Yakut slaughters an animal, the viscera, 
fat, and entrails are divided into portions of different size and 
worth, and distributed to the neighbors, who having learned that 
the slaughtering was to take place, generally take turns in visiting 
the owner. To fail to give any neighbour a share is to make an 
enemy. To pass anyone over purposely is equivalent to a chal- 
lenge, and wall put an end to friendly relations between families. 
We are convinced of the antiquity of this custom by tradition, 
and by its dying out nowadays. That it was a sib custom, we 
are convinced by certain usages at marriages and ceremonies of 
reconciliation. Distributions of meat are now a part of marriage 
ceremonies, and the chief dishes served at marriages consist of 
meat. The formulas of language employed in connection with this 
use of meat are reminders that the ceremony has created relation- 
ships between the participants. 

" The strength of this custom was proved by a case observed 
by the author, who saw the gladness of a good-for-nothing fellow, 
who up to that time had done nothing but receive large shares, 
but who suddenly, by chance, drove a fat wild reindeer into a 
swamp, and so in his turn was enabled to make presents to his 
neighbours of portions of meat. No comparison would do justice 
to the self-satisfaction of this individual, when he at last served 

1 The Yakuts, p. 67. 

[137] 



up the game which he had won. He reserved for himself almost 
nothing. Other things which are subject to immediate consump- 
tion, and can be distributed into small portions, are shared in the 
same way, especially dainties, like sugar, cookies, or other rarity- 
Vodka is always divided amongst all who are present, even the 
children getting a drop. Tobacco also is subject to this custom. 
It is not degrading but honourable to receive a gift of food from 
one who is eating, especially if he is an honoured person. It is 
a violation of etiquette to give little to a rich man and much to 
a poor man. The opposite is the rule. If one man's cow calves 
earlier than those of the others, custom requires that he shall 
share cream and milk with those neighbours who at that time 
have none." 1 

HOUSES. " The largest number of settlements contain four 
or five huts, with twenty or thirty souls. Occasionally one is met 
with in which there are forty or fifty huts, and some hundreds 
of souls. The winter houses for the most part stand separately, 
and at some distance from each other, but near to the hay-stacks. 
In this detail the influence of the later economic system dependent 
upon hay is to be seen. The summer dwellings, on the other hand, 
seem to represent more nearly the ancient mode of life. The 
summer group consists of many huts which stand quite close 
together, although not apparently in order, but distributed ac- 
cording to the convenience of water and the pleasantness of the 
place. They are distributed so that the sibs stand together, 
which is probably an ancient feature." 2 

MARRIAGE. " The greatest part of the expense of a wedding 
falls on the groom. It is an essential part of the payment for the 
bride. The expense varies from a few rubles to two thousand 
rubles; the average is perhaps one hundred rubles. This expen- 
diture would be beyond the means of the majority, if it were 
not that a large part of it comes back under the form of the bride's 
dower. If the total payment of the groom be divided into its 
parts, the part spent for the entertainment is spent by the groom 
without return; but the payment to the parents of the bride, 
and the gifts to her relatives, are restored in the gift with her. 
She brings household furniture, garments, silver articles, the 
stipulated number of mares and cows, corresponding to the 
number of animals contributed by the groom. She also brings 
colts and calves voluntarily contributed by her parents and not 
mentioned in the contract. She also brings gifts in the shape of 
meat and butter. Each wooden cup which she brings ought to 
contain a little butter. She also brings one fox skin and nine 
ermine skins, or at least one ermine skin. This is hung up over 
the bed where the unmarried women sleep. Later it is carried 
into thj store-house, where it is carefully preserved until the first 
child is born; then they carry it into the wood and give it to the 
shaman. At any rate it disappears. 

1 The Yakuts, pp. 68-69. 

2 The Yakuts, p. 72. 

[138] 



" Either under pretence of getting ready the bride's outfit, 
or on account of her youth and inexperience, the parents do not 
give their daughter to her husband immediately after the mar- 
riage, even if there has been a religious marriage, and the bride- 
prire has been paid, and they have agreed to do this soon. For- 
merly the delay was often four or five years, and the custom of 
marrying children, even when very young, existed still earlier. 
During all the delay, the husband visits his wife at his leisure, 
but every time he ought to bring a gift to the wife's parents, a 
quarter or two of meat, a fox skin, or some other present. These 
gifts are a very unwelcome addition to the bride-price. When the 
time comes for the bride to go to her husband's house, she is very 
coldly received by his relatives if she brings less than was expected. 
If she brings less than was agreed upon, quarrels arise. Often 
there is a complete rupture, if the marriage has not taken place 
in church. In the latter case, they boycott her and she suffers 
all kinds of petty household persecutions which poison her existence. 

" The bride-price is shared by the parents, older brothers, 
uncles, and guardians of the bride, and, in the case of orphan 
working girls, by the master. Each gets something, be it ever 
so little, as a recognition of surrender by him of a claim on the 
woman. Not a single well-bred Yakut girl would consent to go 
to her husband without a bride-price. She would be degraded 
in her own eyes and according to the views of her people. It 
would mean that she was not worth any price, was friendless, or 
an outcast. It can be understood, therefore, that the Yakut 
women look down upon the Russian women, who, as they say, 
pay somebody to take them. Even young widows who have 
returned to their families are paid for, though at a lower rate 
than maidens. Older widows who have lived for a time inde- 
pendently with a minor son, or as work-women, marry without 
a bride-price; but the Yakuts have an original comment on this. 
They say that ' she wanted to exploit herself,' or they say that 
she had been paid for once, and that if she marries again, nobody 
loses anything. The author asked one of them, ' Who lost any- 
thing when a maiden was married? ' ' The parents,' said he. 
' They had the trouble and expense of rearing her. They ought 
to obtain an equivalent for that. Besides that, they lose a worker 
out of the house. How is it that you Russians do not understand 
that? ' ' But,' said the author, ' if a son is married, they get 
nothing and even give him something.' ' The son is another 
thing,' was the reply. ' In the first place, his labour produces 
more for his parents before his marriage, and then he doesn't 
go away; he remains in the same sib; he is our man; he will 
bear his share of taxes and burdens.' This presents the current 
view of this matter among them. ' We fed and reared,' they 
say, ' and others are to get the benefit. We will take something 
for the expenditure.' " l 

1 The Yakuts, pp. 84-85. 

[139] 



" To accomplish a betrothal, three male relatives of the groom 
go on horseback to the house of the desired girl. Upon entering 
this, they sit down in the place of honour, where they sit talking 
about different matters, and watching what goes on in the house 
for one or two days. Then they pack up their things and place 
them on their horses, and when quite ready to leave on their 
journey, they return into the house. If the groom has come 
with them, he now stays outside. The go-betweens sit down 
again and wait awhile. Then the oldest of them, in silence, throws 
upon the table the skin of a fox. Then the father of the bride 
puts on his cap and sits down behind the table in the place where 
he sits at the wedding, and asks them what they want. They 
in turn, calling the bride a young mare, or a valuable beast, con- 
duct a negotiation, asking whether she is for sale. When they 
get an affirmative reply, they agree upon the amount of the bride- 
price, the dower, the time of the wedding, the time when the 
groom shall have his wife, the mode of paying the bride-price, 
and all the details. All is negotiated with great pains in order 
to avoid future disputes. Then the guests speedily depart. 
Sometimes fox skins, vodka, and money are left on the table when 
they go out for the first time; and if, when they return, they 
see that these things have been taken away, they proceed to 
negotiate the terms. The bride has a very small share in this 
negotiation. Sometimes they ask her whether she is willing, but 
this is a modern innovation. If a man meets with a refusal of the 
girl he asks for, he usually insists that another shall be given to 
him in the same house, if there is another there. The Yakuts 
consider it an injury to meet with a refusal, and especially in the 
case of a proposal of marriage. They think it improper to send 
the go-betweens, under any circumstances whatsoever, within a 
year to a girl who has given a refusal to a man." 1 

At the time of the wedding the groom with his friends rides 
to the house of the bride at dawn leading two horses ladened with 
fresh meat. When they arrive they are received with great cere- 
mony and led into the house. The. groom is the last one to enter, 
and he is taken to a corner of the room where he is put in a chair 
facing the wall. The bride is in the opposite corner in a similar 
position, and they both stay there until the ceremony is over. 
For three days there is much feasting and games in which the 
bride and groom do not participate. 

" It is not until the fourth day, after dinner, that the relatives 
of the groom prepare to depart for good. When they have mounted 
their horses, a big wooden cup of kumiss is served to each one of 
them, and then the whole cortege, in the same order in which it 
had arrived, the father of the groom at the head, and the groom 
last, are escorted by the relatives of the bride around the three 
hitching posts for horses, which are set in the middle of the court. 
They go about these posts three times in the course of the sun.. 

1 The Yakuts, p. 87. 

[140] 



Each time, when they have completed a circuit, they stop, and 
each horseman pours out kumiss from his cup on the mane of 
his horse. When they have drunk the remainder of the kumiss 
and returned the cups to the escort, they depart at a gallop 
through the open gateway. The solemn ceremony is then con- 
sidered ended, yet this in only half of the wedding. It is true 
that from that time the bride and groom consider themselves 
man and wife, but not until the whole bride-price has been paid, 
i. e., sometimes after two or three years, does the husband conduct 
his wife to his own house. Then they again celebrate the feasts 
three days long, in the same manner, the groom sitting again for 
the whole time in one corner, with his face to the wall, and the 
bride in another, behind a curtain of soft leather." 1 

CHILDREN. The average number of children for each 
woman is ten although sometimes they go as high as twenty-two. 
However, few of the children live, for the conditions of life are 
so hard that it is difficult to rear more than three or four. 

" When a child begins to sit up, which takes place at the end 
of three months, it is no longer called a baby, but has another 
class-name. In ancient times they gave it its first name at this 
point of time; it got a second one when it could draw a bow. 
Their babies creep at six months, and stand and walk at a year. 
So after they are six months old, they crawl all over the floor of 
the house. The Yakuts think that a child which does not under- 
stand human language understands the talk of the fire, the singing 
of the birds, the language of the beasts, lifeless objects and spirits; 
but that he loses this gift when he acquires human speech. This 
superstition may be due to the habit of children to stay about 
the fire, the warmest and pleasant est place in the house, and 
also the most interesting, where a child stands staring at the 
flames with his big black eyes and listening to the hissing and 
snapping of the fire. Their children look the prettiest to Euro- 
peans when they are from five to ten years old, because then they 
are most like our children ; but then they are by no means sprightly 
and enterprising, and they are excessively obedient." 2 

PARENTS AND CHILDREN. " There is no such thing as 
any patriarchal relationship, or any deep-rooted or cultivated 
feeling of respect for the old, amongst the Yakuts. A young 
Yakut said, ' They not only do not feed, nor honour, nor obey, 
but they scold and often beat the old people. With my own eyes, 
I have more than once seen Yakuts, poor and rich, bad and good, 
beat their fathers and mothers.' They behave especially badly 
with decrepit and feeble-minded parents. Their chief object 
in dealing with such is to wrest from them any bits of property 
they may still retain. Thus, as the old people become more and 
more defenseless, they are treated worse and worse. It was no 
better in the ancient times. Force, the coarse force of the fist, 



1 The Yakuts, p. 83. 

2 The Yakuts, p. 80. 



[141] 



or the force of hunger, rules in the modern Yakut family, and 
seems to indicate the servile origin of that family. Once the 
author saw how a weak old man of seventy beat with a stick 
his forty-year old son, who was in good health, rich, and a com- 
pletely independent householder, who had just been elected to 
an office in the sib. The son stood quietly and did not even 
dare to evade the blows, but that man still had an important 
amount of property at his disposition, and he ruled the family 
by the fear that he could deprive any recalcitrant one of a share 
in the inheritance. 

" In well-to-do families, where there is a great quantity of 
cattle, or where the right to large advantages from land, or the 
possession of well-established trade, provides an opportunity to 
win from hired labour, and so an important revenue is obtained, 
independently of personal labour the rule of the father and mother 
as proprietors, especially the rule of the father, is strengthened 
and maintained for a long time, namely, to the moment when the 
old people become decrepit and lose the capacity to comprehend 
the simplest things. Generally they die before that time. This 
state of things is maintained by the spread of Russian ideas and 
laws. In the old-fashioned Yakut family, the economy of which 
is founded almost entirely on cattle-breeding, and in which con- 
stant personal supervision is required, thus making personal 
strength and initiative indispensable, the moment of the transfer 
of rale into the hands of the son is reached much earlier. It occurs 
still earlier in poor families which live exclusively by hand-labour 
and by the industry of the strongest and best endowed. The old 
people strive against this tendency in vain. The young people 
naturally strive to avail themselves as fully as possible of the 
results of their labour, and as soon as they feel strong enough, 
they begin to struggle for their rights. The parents are dependent 
on their sons, who could go away to earn wages. Hence they say, 
' It is more advantageous for us Yakuts, in this frozen country 
of ours, to have many children than to have much money and 
cattle. Children are our capital, if they are good. It is hard to 
get good labourers, even for large wages, but a son when he grows 
up, is a labourer who costs nothing; nevertheless, it is hard to 
rear children.' The author knew of cases in which wives put 
up with the presence of mistresses in the house, considering that 
an inevitable consequence of their own childlessness. The death 
of children is accepted coldly in populous districts, but in the 
thinly settled ones is sincerely bewailed. Sometimes they take 
to drink or to idleness when they have lost children. 

" The greatest number of suicides are old people who fear a 
lonely old age. The treatment they receive fully accounts for 
this." 1 

POSITIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN. "In a family in 
which the rights and powers have been reduced to equilibrium, 

1 The Yakuts, pp. 76-77. 

[142] 



so that all the relations of the members are established, the 
dominion of the head, whoever he is, over the labour and the 
property of the members is unlimited. The organization is really 
servile. Especially pitiful is the position of the women, who 
play no rdle in the sib, and therefore can expect no protection 
from anybody. The author advised a woman to appeal to the 
sib, when she complained that her husband exploited her labour 
and that of her half-grown son: that he was extravagant and 
wasteful, so that he was likely to reduce them to pauperism. 
' The head! ' said she, ' how often have I complained to him! 
he listens and says nothing, and after that my husband is still 
more quarrelsome and more perverse.' Another woman said, 
' The man is the master; it is necessary to obey him; he works 
abroad and we at home.' This work abroad consists for the most 
part in taking part in the village assemblies and in constant 
loafing from house to house. It is true that the man acquires 
information about wages and prices; but he also keeps to himself 
the monopoly of all external relations, and even for the absence 
of any of the housemates without his consent he demands a strict 
account. To acquire an extra gain, win food or money, or earn 
something by outside work is considered more desirable than to 
follow heavy daily labour which would maintain the life of the 
family from day to day. If the head of the household has grown- 
up children, the amount of work which he does is insignificant. 
He works like the others only at the hay-harvest; the rest of the 
time he wanders about, looking out, it is true, for the external 
interests of the family to which his care is now restricted, although 
formerly it extended to the sib. Inside the house he is treated 
with almost slavish respect and consideration. His presence 
puts an end to cheerfulness, the excuse for which is that he must 
maintain respect." l 

RELIGION. The Yakuts are nominally Christian although 
they still cling to many of their superstitious beliefs. 

" The Yakuts have a custom of making presents to their ac- 
quaintances before death. They give away cattle, chattels 
and more rarely, clothing and money. They think that washing, 
the corpse is obligatory; but they put it off till the last thing 
in order to avoid superfluous trouble and busying themselves 
unpleasantly with the corpse. The dying person is often dressed 
in his grave-clothes while still alive. These clothes, even among 
the poorest people, are kept in store for this purpose; so that 
they are new or scarcely worn at all. One thing about which the 
dying Yakut really cares is that some domestic animal may be 
slaughtered immediately after his death, in order that, riding on 
it, or with it, he may accomplish his journey into the lower world. 
With this purpose for men, they slaughter oxen and horses, and 
for women, cows, young ones if the wealth of the deceased admits 
of a choice, and of course they select by preference beasts of 

1 The Yakuts, p. 78. 

[143] 



burden on which one can ride, and above all, fat ones. The 
spirits of the dead will have to drive before them cows and calves 
with a switch; or to lead them by ropes tied around the horns, 
which is attended with some inconvenience. Poor people kill 
the most worthless of the animals which they have. In the north, 
they often kill reindeer, but whether they kill sledge-dogs, the 
author does not know; he thinks not. The labourers who make 
the coffins and dig the graves, the literary persons who read the 
Psalter over the deceased, and the neighbours who visit the house 
at this time, are fed with the meat of the slaughtered animals. 
In the north, where in general all their customs have been better 
preserved, and where now they are observed with greater accuracy, 
even the very poorest family try to provide for the funeral feast 
of a member some animal, even if it is only a sucking calf. Some- 
times they sacrifice for this purpose the last miserable cow." 1 

" When the coffin is ready, they put the body in it and cover 
it over with white cotton cloth. In the left hand they place a 
passport (they use this word), in order that the ghost may be 
received into paradise, where it will live as it did on earth. If 
it had no passport, those of the other world would say to it, 
' Friend, you have gone astray,' and it would have to go on 
beyond the forty -four lands where the demons live. On the 
third day, in the morning, they either carry the coffin, or place 
it on an ox, never on a horse, in order to bring it to the grave. 
Nobody accompanies it but the bearers and the grave-digger, 
and these make haste to finish their task as quickly as possible 
and hurry away home. When returning they would not for 
anything look backwards, but when they come into the gateway 
of the enclosure, or the door of the house, they themselves go, 
and they lead the beasts by which the corpse was carried, across 
a bonfire, lighted by them, built of the chips and shavings left 
over from the coffin, and also of the straw on which the corpse 
had lain. The spades, sleigh, and in general all that which was 
used in any way whatever for the interment, they break up and 
leave on the grave elevation. If they bury a child, then they 
hang up there on a tree his cradle, and they leave there his play- 
things. Formerly they left on the grave food, furniture, tools, 
dishes, and other objects indispensable in life. Now that custom 
has died out. In the north, on the ancient graves, the author 
often found rusted and broken kettles, knives, spear-points, 
stirrups, and rings from harnesses and saddles— all broken, punc- 
tured and spoiled, with the purpose, as the natives explain, that 
the dead might not be able with them to harm the living." 2 

THE OLD. " A local tradition is met with that in ancient 
times if an old person became extremely decrepit, or if anyone 
became ill beyond the hope of recovery, such person generally 
begged his beloved children or relatives to bury him. Then the 



The Yakuts, p. 98. 
The Yakuts, p. 99. 



[144] 



neighbours were called together, the host and the fattest cattle 
were slaughtered, and they feasted for three days, during which 
time the one who was to die, dressed in his best travelling clothes, 
sat in the foremost place, and received from all who were present 
marks of respect and the best pieces of food. On the third day 
the relative chosen by him led him into the wood and unexpectedly 
thrust him into a hole previously prepared. They then left him 
together with vessels, tools and food, to die of hunger. Sometimes 
an old man and wife are buried together; sometimes an ox or 
horse was buried alive with them ; and sometimes a saddled horse 
was tied up to a post set in the ground near by, and left there to 
die of hunger. This tradition is met with on the Alden River." 1 

SHAMANS. The Shaman or medicine-man is a very import- 
ant member of the community for it is he who is able to protect 
the people from the influence of the evil spirits. Every Shaman 
must have a tutelary or personal guardian spirit. 

" The Shamans cure all diseases, but especially such as are 
mysterious, being nervous affections, such as hysterics, mental 
derangement, convulsions, and St. Vitus' dance; also impotence, 
sterility, puerperal fever, etc.; then diseases of the internal 
organs, especially such as cause the patient to groan, scream, 
and toss about; then also wounds, broken and decayed bones, 
headache, inflammation of the eyes, rheumatic fever; besides 
these also all epidemic diseases and consumption; but this last 
they treat only with a view to alleviation, considering it incurable. 
They refuse to treat diarrhoea, scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, 
syphilis, scrofula, and leprosy, which they call ' the great disease.' 
They are especially afraid of small-pox, and take care not to 
perform their rites in a house where a case of it has recently oc- 
curred. They call small-pox and measles ' old women,' and say 
that they are two Russian sisters dressed in Russian fashion, 
who go to visit in person those houses where they have marked 
their victims. All diseases come from evil spirits who have taken 
possession of men. Methods of cure are always of the same kind, 
and consist in propitiating or driving away the uninvited guest. 
The simplest method of cure is by fire. A boy whose wounded 
finger became inflamed, came to the conclusion, which the by- 
standers shared, that a yor had established itself in the finger. 
Desiring to drive it out, he took a burning coal and began to 
apply it around the place while blowing upon it. When the 
burned flesh began to blister, and then burst with a little crackle, 
then the curious group which had crowded around him flew 
back with a cry of terror, and the wounded boy, with a smile of 
self-satisfaction, said, ' You saw how he jumped out.' A man 
who had the rheumatism had his body marked all over with deep 
burnings. As soon as he had any pain, he applied fire to the seat 
of it." 2 



1 The Yakuts, p. 100. 

2 The Yakuts, pp. 104-105. 



[145] 



FIRE. " The spirit of fire is a grey-haired, garrulous, restless, 
eternally fussy old man. What he is whispering and shuffling 
about so perpetually few understand. The Shaman understands 
it, and also the little child whose ear has not yet learned to dis- 
tinguish human speech. The fire understands well what they 
are saying and doing round about it; therefore, it is dangerous 
to hurt the feelings of the fire, to scold it, to spit upon it, to urinate 
on it. It will not do to cast into the fire rubbish which adheres 
to the shoes, for that would cause headache. It is sinful to poke 
the fire with an iron instrument, and the wooden poker with which 
they do stir it up must be burned every week, or there will be bad 
luck in the house. A good house-mistress always takes care that 
the fire may be satisfied with her, and she casts into it a bit of 
everything which is prepared by its aid. No one ever knows 
what kind of a fire is burning on the hearth in his house; there- 
fore, it is well to conciliate it from time to time, by little gifts. 
The fire loves, above all, fat, butter and cream. They sprinkle 
these often upon it. They told the author, in the northern region, 
about a people who were said to live on the islands of the Arctic 
Ocean and who had no knowledge of fire." 1 

GOVERNMENT. " Mass meetings, or popular assemblies, 
are held, in summer, in the open air, not far from the meeting- 
house of the sib. The oldest and most influential sit in the first 
rank, on the bare ground, with their legs crossed under them. 
In the second rank sit or kneel the independent but less wealthy 
heads of households. In the third rank are the youth, children, 
poor man, and often women, for the most part standing, in order 
the better to see and hear. In general it is the first row which 
decides affairs; the second row sometimes offers its remarks 
and amendments, but no more. The third rank listens in silence. 
Sometimes the passions are aroused, and they all scream at once, 
but the decision of the question is always submitted to the first 
rank. It conducts the deliberation. The orators come from its 
ranks. Oratory is highly esteemed, and they have some talented 
orators. The first rank are distinguished for riches and energy. 
They can submit or withhold questions; but decisions are never 
considered binding until confirmed by a mass meeting. According 
to their traditions, in ancient times, a prominent role in these 
assemblies was played by old men, who must, however, have 
distinguished themselves, and won prestige, by good sense, knowl- 
edge and experience. They decided questions according to the" 
customs, and gave advice when the sib was in any difficulty." 2 

1 The Yakuts, p. 106. 

2 The Yakuts, p. 73. 



[146] 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ESKIMOS 

SITUATION AND ENVIRONMENT. The Eskimos 1 inhabit 
the northern portion of North America. Their territory extends 
from the west coast of Behring Strait across Alaska, the north 
coast of North America, the North American groups of Arctic 
Islands and both the west and east coasts of Greenland. It is 
largely a land of ice, snow and water, although in the southern 
portion the short hot summer enables the people to raise a very 
few vegetables in the stony soil. 

We are placing this discussion of the Eskimos under the Mon- 
golian heading because of the great similarity which exists between 
the people of northern Asia and northern America, not only in their 
physical features, but also in their language and civilization. 
While it is evident that all the peoples of America are closely 
related, yet those of the more temperate climate do not bear as 
close a relationship to their northern brothers as do these people 
to those on the eastern shores of Behring Strait. 

HISTORY. " The likeness between all the different tribes 
of Eskimos as well as their secluded position with respect to other 
peoples, and the perfection of their implements, might be taken 
to indicate that they are of a very old race, in which everything 
has stiffened into definite forms, which can now be but slowly 
altered. Other indications, however, seem to conflict with such 
a hypothesis, and render it more probable that the race was 
originally a small one, which did not until a comparatively late 
period develop to the point at which we now find it, and spread 
over the countries which it at present inhabits. 

"If it should seem difficult to understand, at first sight, how 
they could have spread in a comparatively short time over these 
wide tracts of country without moving in great masses, as in the 
case of larger migrations, we need only reflect that their present 
inhospitable abiding-places can scarcely have been inhabited, 
at any rate permanently, before they took possession of them, 
and that, therefore, they had nothing to contend with except 
nature itself. 

" Dr. H. Rink, who has made Greenland and its people the 
study of his life, and is beyond comparison the greatest authority 
on the subject, holds that the Eskimo implements and weapons — ■ 
at any rate, for the greater part — may be traced to America. 
He regards it as probable that the Eskimos were once a race 
dwelling in the interior of A aska, where there are still a con- 
siderable number of inland Eskimos, and that they have migrated 
thence to the coasts of the ice-sea. He further maintains that 
1 The word Eskimo means " Eaters of raw meat." 

[147] 



their speech is most closely connected with the primitive dialects 
of America, and that their legends and customs recall those of 
the Indians. 

" One point among others, however, in which the Eskimos differ 
from the Indians is the use of dog-sledges. With the exception 
of the Incas of Peru, who use the llama as the beast of burden, 
no American aborigines employed animals either for drawing or 
for carrying. In this, then, the Eskimos more resemble the races 
of the Asiatic polar regions." 1 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. The Eskimo has a yellowish brown 
color " and even among the half-breeds a certain tinge of brownish 
yellow is unmistakable. This natural darkness of the skin, how- 
ever, is generally much intensified, especially in the case of men 
and old women, by a total lack of cleanliness. The method of 
washing practiced by the men is to ' scrape the sweat off their 
faces with a knife' ". 2 The mothers sometimes clean their chil- 
dren by licking them before putting them into their cradles. 

He has a round, broad, flat face, high cheekbones, small 
Mongolian eyes; flat nose, and broad mouth. His teeth are good, 
but owing to the character of the food they are worn down to the 
gums in old age. His head is mesocephalic and the hair is long, 
black and straight with a small amount on the face and almost 
none on the body. The height of the men is about 5 ft. 2 in. 
while that of the women is 5 ft. 

" The men have broad shoulders, strong, muscular arms, and 
a good chest; but on the other hand one notices that their thighs 
are comparatively narrow, and their legs not particularly strong. 
When they get up in years, therefore, they are apt to have an 
uncertain gait, with knees slightly bent. This defective develop- 
ment of the lower extremities must be ascribed for the most 
part, to the daily confinement in the cramped kaiak. 3 " 4 

The people grow old in appearance at a comparatively early 
age. The skin becomes very much wrinkled, the eyes bleary, 
and hair scanty. 

CHARACTER. Before the Eskimos came into contact with 
the white race they possessed many virtues which have since 
been lost, although even at the present time they maintain certain 
qualities which seem to be almost inborn. They have a different 
set of actions for members of their own group and for foreigners. 
They call themselves " the people " (Innuit) and hence they look 
at all others as interlopers who should be treated as such. 

They are truthful and honest in their dealings with each 
other, but towards the other races these qualities do not pre- 
dominate. The reason for this is not hard to find. The first 
Europeans that came, plundered the natives, maltreated the 
women, and even took some of them back to Europe as prisoners. 

1 Nansen — " Eskimo Life," pp. 6-8. 

2 Nansen, p. 21. 

3 Kaiak — Skin boat. 

4 Nansen, p. 20. 

[148] 



Thus the Eskimos had little reason from the beginning to regard 
the foreigners as their friends. However, since that time much 
of the contact has been more friendly and the Eskimos are treat- 
ing the whites almost as they do those of their own color. Still 
they are not loath to steal a few things which they think will not 
be missed. 

" Fighting and brutalities of that sort are unknown among 
them, and murder is very rare. They hold it atrocious to kill a 
fellow-creature; therefore war is in their eyes incomprehensible 
and repulsive, a thing for which their language has no word ; and 
soldiers and officers, brought up to the trade of killing they regard 
as mere butchers." 1 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. " The Eskimo more than anyone 
else, belongs to the coast and the sea. He dwells by the sea, 
upon it he seeks his subsistence, it gives him all the necessaries 
of his life, over it he makes all his joarneys whether in his skin- 
canoes in summer, or in his dog-sledges when it is ice-bound in 
winter. Tha sea is thus the strongest influence in the life of the 
Eskimo." 2 

BOATS. The Kaiak or skin boat is very necessary for every 
Eskimo living on the sea. These boats, large enough for one man, 
are about eighteen feet long and eighteen inches broad at the 
widest part. The depth from top to bottom is about six inches. 
The frame of the boat is made of wood or bone covered with seal 
skin which has been carefully worked by the women. In the 
middle of the kaiak deck is a hole just big enough for one man 
to get in. The boat is propelled by a double bladed paddle. 

In good weather the man wears a " half jacket " made of 
water-tight skin which fastens tightly to a ring around the opening 
of the boat and comes up to the armpits of the man. It is held 
in place by straps which go over his shoulders. Loose sleeves of 
skin are drawn over the hands and arms in order to keep the 
man dry. 

In a heavy sea the man wears the " whole jacket." This is 
similar to the " half-jacket " in that it fits to the opening of the 
boat, but the upper part is longer and has a hood which goes 
over the head and fastens under the chin with drawing strings. 
The sleeves which are fastened to the jacket, are tied around the 
wrists. In this outfit it is possible for a man to go through the 
heaviest breakers and to capsize and right himself again without 
getting wet and without letting any water into the boat. 

It takes a great deal of practice to become skilful in using the 
kaiak, and boys begin at a Very early age under the tutelage of 
their fathers to master its difficulties. A man is not considered 
an expert until he has learned the art of righting himself after 
capsizing. The number of deaths every year of those who are 
unskilful is large. 



1 Nansen, p. 162. 
3 Nansen, p 3 



[149] 



WEAPONS. The Eskimo shows in perhaps no better way 
the adaptation to a very difficult environment than in the weapons 
which he uses for hunting. Wood is, of course, scarce for about 
all they get is that which is thrown up on the shore by the sea, 
and hence every bit is valuable and must be conserved with the 
greatest care. The spear or javelin, which is the chief weapon, 
is made in two parts, the shaft of wood and the head of bone. 
If the shaft and the head were fastened tightly together and the 
spear stuck in a bear or seal which escaped, it would mean that 
a very valuable piece of wood would be lost. To obviate the 
possibility of such an occurrence the shaft and the head are 
fastened so lightly together that when an animal is struck, the 
head of the spear detaches itself and stays in the animal, while 
the shaft falls to the ground or floats on the water and can thus 
be easily rescued. 

The harpoon is used almost exclusively on the sea and is con- 
structed with a few exceptions along the same lines as the spear. 
In the first place, it is a good deal heavier than the spear, and in 
the second place, the head is of different construction. " The 
upper end of the wooden shaft is fitted with a thick and strong 
plate of bone, on the top of which is fixed a long bone foreshaft — ■ 
commonly made of walrus or narwhal tusk — which is fastened 
to the shaft by means of a joint of thongs, so that a strong pres- 
sure or blow from the side, instead of shattering the foreshaft, 
causes it to break off at the joint. This foreshaft fits exactly 
into a hole in the harpoon-head proper, which is made of bone, 
generally of walrus or narwhal tusk." The head is held temporar- 
ily to the shaft by a thong and to this is attached an inflated blad- 
der of some animal. " When the harpoon strikes and the seal 
begins to plunge, the bone foreshaft instantly breaks off at the 
joint, and the harpoon-head, with the line and bladder attached 
to it, is thus loosened from the shaft, which floats up to the 
surface and is picked up by the owner, while the seal dashes away, 
dragging the line and bladder after it." 1 

Another weapon of importance is the bird-dart. The head is 
now of iron, but it used to be made of bone. There are fastened 
to the middle of the shaft three forward-slanting bone spikes. If 
the head of the dart does not strike the bird one of these spikes may. 

All three of these weapons, the spear, the harpoon and the 
bird-dart, are hurled by means of a throwing stick very similar 
to those seen in other countries. 

HUNTING AND FISHING. The hunting at sea is usually 
done by several men each in his own kaiak. They will spear 
three or four seals apiece and attaching a bladder to each to keep, 
it afloat, will drag them back to the village. The women come 
down to meet the returning hunters, for their work now begins. 
They take the seals onto the land, cut them up and prepare the 
skins for use. 

1 Nansen, pp. 35 ff. 

[150] 



Hunting or fishing from these kaiaks is dangerous business, 
for frequently the seal or walrus, in its dying struggles, attacks the 
man and either injures him or cuts the light skin of his boat so 
thai he drowns. 

In winter when the people are unable to go out in their boats, 
they hunt the seal by stalking. That is, they flop along the ice 
as the seals do until they get as near to the animal as possible 
and then hurl their spears. A seal has a hole in the ice beside 
which it sleeps. One peculiarity of this animal is that it sleeps 
for a few moments, then it raises its head, looks all around the 
horizon, and, if it sees no danger* drops back on the ice again. 
However, the seal is able to see clearly only a very short distance 
and hence if the man keeps moving in a seal-like manner, the 
seal suspects nothing, and it is possible to get very near to it. 

In hunting the polar bear one method is to freeze a coiled 
spring made of bone into a piece of meat and leave it on the ice. 
The bear swallows it, the heat of the stomach melts the meat, the 
spring flies out and tears the stomach of the bear so that it dies 
shortly. 

FOOD. Meat and fish form the chief articles of diet of the 
Eskimo. These are eaten raw, frozen, boiled or dried. Frequently 
the meat is allowed to ferment or decompose before it is eaten. 
Seal and whale blubber are eaten raw. There is very little 
vegetable food to be obtained, and so to make up for this lack, 
they eat the contents of the reindeer's stomach with the greatest 
relish. This contains the finest moss and grasses. If a Green- 
lander kills a reindeer and is unable to carry the whole animal 
home with him he will cut out the stomach and take that. Another 
delicacy is the skin of the whale with a layer of blubber next to 
it. This is eaten raw and tastes like a mixture of oysters and 
nuts. 

When the white people came in contact with the Eskimos they 
brought with them soap and candles, but instead of using these 
for the purposes intended, the natives ate them with great enjoy- 
ment. Coffee has been given to them by the whites and this they 
consume in great quantities, sometimes drinking four and five 
bowls a day. 

" The Eskimos are enormous eaters; two will easily dispose 
of a seal at a sitting; and in Greenland, for instance, each indi- 
vidual has for his daily consumption, on an average, 2)4. lbs. of 
flesh with blubber, and one lb. of fish, besides mussels, berries, 
seaweed, etc., to which in the Danish settlement may be added 
two oz. of imported food. Ten pounds of flesh, in addition to 
other food, is not uncommonly consumed in a day in time of 
plenty. A man will lie on his back and allow his wife to feed 
him with tit-bits of blubber and flesh until he is unable to move." 1 

HOUSES. The type of house depends upon the locality 
in which people are living. In the far north the houses are made 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica under Eskimo. 

[151] 



of snow and ice, while further south they are constructed from 
stone, dirt and even skins. 

The snow house (iglu) is made from blocks 16 inches square 
and about six inches thick. They are laid in spirally ascending 
rows so as to form a dome-shaped vault. The entrance is through 
a long low passage which has a block of snow or the heavy skin 
of an animal hung over the entrance to keep out the cold. Light 
is admitted by a transparent piece of ice. Around the sides of 
the hut are seats made from blocks of ice, which, when covered 
with skins, form the beds. 

Although the only heat in these huts comes from a floating- 
wick stone lamp which stands in the middle of the floor, yet the 
temperature of the room can be kept at about 70° F. This lamp 
is the most important article of furniture, for it not only gives 
the people heat and light but it also serves for cooking and drying 
the wet clothes. In Greenland the winter houses are made of 
stones and turf. They are about five or six feet above the level 
of the ground, and the floor is sunk several feet below. 

" There is only one room in these houses, and in it several 
families generally live together — men and women, old and young. 
The roof is so low that a man of any stature can scarcely stand 
upright. The room forms an oblong quadrangle. Along the whole 
of the longer wall opposite the door, runs the chief sleeping bench, 
about six feet six inches in width, upon which sleep the married 
people, with grown up unmarried daughters and young boys 
and girls. Here they lie in a row, side by side, with their feet 
towards the wall and their heads out into the room. 

" Unmarried men generally lie upon smaller benches under 
the windows, which are in the opposite long wall. The windows 
were formerly filled with gut-skin or some similar material, but 
nowadays on the west coast glass is commonly used. 

" The house is entered through a long and narrow passage, 
partly dug out beneath the level of the ground, and, like the 
houses, walled with stones and turf. You descend into it from 
the level of the ground through a hole. It is as a rule, so low 
and narrow that one has to crouch one's way through it, and a 
large man finds it difficult enough to effect an entrance. From 
this passage, you enter the house through a little square opening, 
usually in the front long wall, which is closed by a door or trap- 
door. 

" The purpose of this passage is to prevent the cold air from 
coming in and the warm air from escaping. It is to this end that 
it is made to lie lower than the house; by which means, too, a 
little ventilation is obtained, since, the heavy bad air, can, to 
some extent, sink down into it and escape. In Greenland houses 
of the old style, there are no fireplaces; 'they are warmed as well 
as lighted by train-oil lamps, which burn day and night. They 
are left burning all night through, not merely for the sake of 
warmth, but also because the Eskimos are exceedingly super- 

[152] 



stitious, and therefore afraid of even sleeping in darkness. You 
may hear them relate, as a proof of extreme poverty, that this 
family or that, poor things, have to sleep at night with no lamp 
burning;." 1 

Civilization has introduced to these people fireplaces, stoves, 
iron pots and kettles which change to a large extent their mode 
of existence. Many of the people are now living in individual 
houses instead of several families in one, with the result that 
they are unable to pool their goods and hence poverty is more 
keenly felt. 

During the summer months these stone huts were abandoned, 
the roofs knocked in so that the many undesirable visitors that 
had collected during the winter might be washed out, and the 
people took up their abode in skin tents. 

SUMMER. Most of the families possessed skin boats known 
as women's,-boats. These were about 40 feet long and got their 
name from the fact that they were rowed by the women while 
most of the men followed in their kaiaks, whole families would 
wander from one hunting ground to another during the summer, 
taking with them their tents, household utensils and dogs. They 
sometimes covered as much as 50 miles a clay in these boats. 

" By means of this habit of wandering, they escaped the evil 
effects of too great seclusion in separate villages; they met together 
and kept up intercourse with other people, so that there was all 
through the summer a certain life and traffic from which they 
reaped many benefits. Their minds were enlivened, interest in 
hunting was stimulated, and skill was developed in many different 
ways, to say nothing of the fact that the frequent changing of 
hunting-grounds brought much more game within their reach." 2 

But this is all changed now. Because of the great impoverish- 
ment brought about by the higher civilization, there are every 
year fewer hunters who can get enough skins to make a woman's 
boat and a tent, both of which are necessary for traveling. 

" They are more and more forced to pass the whole year round 
in the unwholesome winter houses, which are, of course, mere 
hot-beds for bacteria and all sorts of contagious diseases, while 
the men are thus unable to change their hunting-grounds, and 
must keep to the same spots year in and year out." 2 

DOGS AND SLEDGES. The dog is the greatest friend 
the Eskimo has, for by it he is able to travel long distances over 
the ice and snow. The wealth of a man is largely determined by 
the number of dogs he possesses. A good team consists of about 
12 dogs, and when they are well trained and the snow is level 
they can travel from 60 to 90 miles a day. The dogs are fastened 
to the sledges by means of a harness of thongs and they are guided 
by a long whip and a single rein. The sledges consist of two 
runners made from wood or bone and fastened together by cross 



1 Nansen, pp. 78 ff. 

2 Nansen, pp. 87-88 



[153] 



pieces of the same materials. These are bound by leather thongs. 
One man sits on the sledge, or, if it is ladened with goods, he 
runs along side, guiding the dogs with a whip. 

CLOTHING. " The costumes of the men and women are 
very similar. The upper garment is made of bird-skins [or seal- 
skins] with the feathers or down turned inwards, is shaped very 
much like our woolen jerseys, and, like them, is drawn over the 
head. It is provided with a hood, used as a head-covering in the 
open air; at other times it is thrown back, and forms, with its 
upstanding selvage of black dog-skin, a sort of collar around the 
neck. At the wrists, too, this garment is edged with black dog- 
skin, like a showy fur overcoat among us. Outside of this an 
outer vest is worn, now for the most part made of cotton. Trousers 
of sealskin or of the European cloth, are worn upon the legs; on 
the feet a peculiar sort of shoes, made of sealskin. These consist 
of two layers, an interior sock of skin with the fur turned inwards, 
and an exterior shoe of hairless, watertight hide. In the sole, 
between the sock and outer shoe, is placed a layer of straw or 
bladder sedge." 1 

The costumes of the women differ in the amount of decoration 
and the number of ornaments upon them. Where the man's 
vest is a dark color that of the woman will be red, blue or green. 
Around their necks many of the women wear necklaces of glass 
beads, and in slits in their ears and lips put plugs of glass, bone 
or shells. 

In the past it was the custom of the people to remove all of 
their clothes with the exception of a loin cloth when they went 
from the cold out-of-doors into the hot houses. 

" This light raiment was, of course, very wholesome; for the 
many layers of skin in the outdoor dress greatly impeded trans- 
piration and it was therefore a natural impulse which led the 
Eskimo to throw them off in the warm rooms, where they would 
be particularly unsanitary. When the Europeans came to the 
country, however, this free-and-easy custom offended their sense 
of propriety, and the missionaries preached against it. Thus it 
happens that the national indoor dress has been abolished on the 
west coast of Greenland. Whether this had led to an improvement 
in morality, I cannot say — I have my doubts. That it has not 
been conducive to sanitation, I can unhesitatingly declare." 2 

TATTOO. Tattooing of the face and body is quite common 
among the Eskimo although it is done more by the women than 
by the men. Usually the person is very young when the opera- 
tion is performed. 

MARRIAGE. The pure-bred Eskimo usually marries as soon 
as he can provide for a wife; but it is not love in our sense of the 
word which stimulates him, but rather the desire to have some 
one who will help to prepare his skins, make his clothes and tend 



1 Nansen, pp. 22 ff. 

2 Nansen, pp. 26-27. 



[154] 



to his house. It frequently happens that a boy marries before 
the age of puberty. 

" Marriage in Greenland was, in earlier times a very simple 
matter. When a man had a mind to a girl, he went to her house 
or tent, seized her by the hair or wherever he could best get hold 
of her, and dragged her without further ceremony home to his 
house, where her place was assigned her upon the sleeping bench. 
The bridegroom would sometimes give her a lamp and a new water- 
bucket, or something of that sort, and that concluded the matter. 
In Greenland, however, as in other parts of the world, good taste 
demanded that the lady in question should on no account let it 
appear that she was a consenting party, however favorably dis- 
posed towards her wooer she might be in her heart. As a well- 
conducted bride among us feels it her duty to weep as she passes 
up the church, so the Eskimo bride was bound to struggle against 
her captor, and to wail and bemoan herself as much as ever she 
could. If she was a lady of the very highest breeding, she would 
weep and ' carry on ' for several days, and even run away home 
again from her husband's house. If she went too far in her care 
for proprieties, it would sometimes happen, we are told, that the 
husband, unless he was already tired of her, would scratch her a 
little on the soles of the feet, so that she could not walk; and 
before the sores were healed, she was generally a contented 
housewife. 

" The simple method of marriage above described is still the 
only one known upon the east coast of Greenland, and a good 
deal of violence is sometimes employed in the carrying off of the 
bride. The lady's relations, however, stand quite unmoved and 
look on. It is all a private matter between the parties, and the 
Greenlander's love of a good understanding with his fellows 
makes h m chary of mixing himself up in the affairs of others. 

" It sometimes happens, of course, that the young lady really 
objects to her wooer; in that case she continues her resistance 
until she either learns to possess her soul in patience, or until 
her captor gives her up." 

" Among the heathen Greenlanders, divorce is as simple an 
affair as marriage. When a man grows tired of his wife — the 
reverse is of rarer occurrence — he need only, says Dalager, ' lie 
apart from her on the sleeping benches, without speaking a word. 
She at once takes the hint,' and next morning gathers all her 
garments together and quietly returns to her parents' house, 
trying, as well as she can, to appear indifferent." 

" On the east coast, if a man can keep more than one wife, 
he takes another; most of the good hunters, therefore, have 
two, but never more. It appears that in many cases the first 
wife does not like to have a rival; but sometimes it is she that 
suggests the second marriage, in order that she may have help 
in her household work. Another motive may also come into 
play. ' I once asked a married woman,' says Dalager, ' why her 

[155] 



husband had taken another wife?' ' I asked him to myself/ she 
replied, ' for I'm tired of bearing children.' " J 

" Among the primitive Eskimos the wife seems practically 
to have been regarded as the husband's property. It sometimes 
happens on the east coast that a formal bargain and sale precedes 
marriage, the bridegroom paying the father a harpoon, or some- 
thing of the sort, for the privilege of wedding his lovely daughter. 
Sometimes, on the other hand, the father will pay a hunter of 
credit and renown to take his daughter off his hands, and 
the daughter is bound to marry at her father's bidding. More- 
over, it often occurs on the east coast that two hunters agree to 
exchange wives for a longer or shorter period — sometimes for 
good. 2 

CHILDREN. " On the average, the pure-bred Greenlanders 
are not prolific — two, three, or four children to each marriage 
is the general rule, though there are instances of families of six 
or eight or even more." 3 This may be due to the fact that 
frequently children are not weaned until they are four or five 
years old and hence the number of children which a mother can 
bear is limited. Another reason for the few children is that the 
hard environment will not support a larger population. Twins 
are uncommon. 

" The heathen Greenlanders kill deformed children and those 
which are so sickly as to seem unlikely to live; those too, whose 
mother dies in child-birth. This they do, as a rule, by exposing 
the child or throwing it into the sea. However cruel it may sound, 
it is nevertheless one from compassion, and it is undeniably 
reasonable, for under such hard conditions as those of Greenland, 
we cannot wonder that people are unwilling to bring up offspring 
which can never be of any use, and can only help to diminish 
the common store of sustenance." 3 

MORALS. Before the Europeans came in contact with these 
people the morals were of a very much higher order than they are 
at the present time. Among the Christian Eskimos it is not 
regarded as any particular disgrace for an unmarried girl to have 
children, especially if the father is a European. On the other 
hand it is said by a man who knew the native Eskimos before 
the higher civilization was brought to them, " during the fifteen 
years I was in Greenland, I know of only two or three unmarried 
girls who gave birth to children; for this they regarded as a 
great disgrace." 4 

However, the strict morality before marriage was relaxed 
after marriage, for then the sexes were practically free to choose 
whom they desired. 

" The morals above described seem to us very bad on the 
whole; but it does not follow that the Eskimos share this feeling. 

1 Nansen, pp. 139 ff. 

2 Nansen, pp. 147-148. 

3 Nansen, pp. 150 ff. 

4 Hans Egede " New Perlustration " quoted by Nansen, p. 166. 

[156] 



We should beware how we fix ourselves at one point of view, and 
unsparingly condemn ideas and practices which the experience 
of many generations has developed among another people, however 
much they conflict with our own. There may be underlying 
reasons which do not at once meet the eye, and which place the 
whole matter in a very different light." 1 

AMUSEMENTS. The pleasures of the Eskimos are very 
few, due probably to the hard condition of the environment in 
which they are living and to the cramped conditions in their 
houses. In the north where the people live in snow huts enjoy- 
ment is gotten from making up poetry and singing songs about 
various brave deeds accomplished on their hunting expeditions. 
In Greenland to the poetry and songs is added the dance, for the 
houses are there large enough to permit of this. 

One dance of theirs, the drum-dance, played a very important 
part in their life, especially their judicial life. If a man was 
accused of any crime both he and the accuser met together in 
a large house. There, surrounded by their friends, they sang 
and danced to the accompaniment of a drum. Each tried in their 
songs to tell of the misdeeds of the other, and to hold him so up 
to ridicule that all the people would laugh. The man who turned 
the greatest number of laughs against his opponent, won the 
case. At times it has happened that ridicule has been so strong 
that the loser was driven into exile. The missionaries considered 
this a heathen custom and so caused it to be abolished. 

RELIGION. The Eskimos are nature worshippers, as are 
so many of the other savage peoples. They conceive that every 
stone, mountain, glacier has its inua or soul. Even tools and 
weapons have inue so that these things are placed upon the 
graves of the dead so that they may accompany the departed 
into the future, life. 

There are also beings of a higher order called tornat who 
can be brought near to man through the medium of the angckoks 
(medicine-men). They are the souls of the dead and act as coun- 
cilors, helpers, or avengers to the medicine-man. 

Above these tornat is a superior being who is thought to wield 
a benevolent power, although evil deeds are often attributed to 
him. His home is in the underworld with the souls of the dead. 
The conception of his form is different with different people. 
Some say that he has no form at all; others that he is like a bear; 
again that he is huge and has only one arm; and still others that 
he is no larger than a finger. When Christianity was introduced 
to the Eskimos this supreme being was transformed into the 
devil rather than into God. 

Man himself is thought to consist of two parts, the body and 
the soul which are entirely distinct from each other. The soul 
can only be seen by the medicine-man to whom it appears in 
the same shape as the body, only of a more airy composition. 

1 Nansen, pp. 169-170. 

[157] 



It is very closely connected with the breath. According to some 
of the people, there is a soul in each part of the body which is 
thought to depart if that member is sick. The soul of man is 
quite independent and can leave the body at any time to wander 
at will. This it does every night when in dreams it goes hunting 
or joins in merry making. This soul can be lost or stolen by 
means of witchcraft. " Then the man falls ill, he must get his 
angekok to set off and fetch his soul back again. If, in the mean- 
time any disaster has happened to it — the man must die. An 
angekok, however, had also power to provide a new soul or ex- 
change a sick soul for a sound, which, he could obtain from, say, 
a hare, a reindeer, a bird, or a young child." 1 

NAME. Besides a man's body and soul there is a third 
element, the name, which plays an important part in his com- 
position. " Among all Greenlanders, even the Christians, the 
first child born after the death of a member of the family is 
almost always called after him, the object being to procure 
peace for him in his grave. The East Greenlanders believe that 
the name remains with the body or migrates through different 
animals, until a child is called by it. It is, therefore, a duty 
to take care that this is done; if not, evil consequences may fol- 
low for the child to whom the name ought to have been given." 2 

The people are afraid of mentioning the name of the dead 
and if a living man bears the same name as that of the deceased 
he will change it. If the departed was named after some animal 
or abstract object the word designating it must be altered. This 
means, therefore, that the language is subject to important 
temporary changes. 3 

" The Greenlanders dare not even speak the name of a glacier 
as they row past it, for fear lest it should be offended and throw 
off an iceberg." 4 

DEATH AND BURIAL. " Their customs at the death and 
burial of their friends show how much they fear the dead, and 
especially their souls or ghosts. The dying are often dressed in 
their grave clothes — that is to say, in their best garments- — a little 
while before death. The legs, too, are often bent together, so 
that the feet come up under the back, and in this position they 
are sewed or swathed in skins. The object is, no doubt, that they 
may take up less space and need a smaller grave; and it is done 
during their life in order that the survivors may have to handle 
their corpses as little as possible. This dread of touching a dead 
body goes so far that they will not help a man in danger — for 
example, a kaiak-man who is drowning — when they believe that 
he is at the point of death. 

" When they are finally dead, they are taken, if it be in a house, 

1 Nansen, p. 228. 

2 Nansen, pp. 228-229. 

3 " When Queen Pomare of Tahiti died, the word po (night) was 
dropped from the language, and nri took its place." Nansen, p. 231. 

4 Nansen, p. 233. 

[158] 



out through the window; if in a tent, 'through an opening cut 
in the skins of the back wall. 

" The survivors also carry their own possessions out of the 
house, that the smell of death may pass away from them. They 
arc cither brought in again at evening, or, as on the east coast, 
are left lying out for several days. The relatives of the dead 
man, on the east coast, go so far as to leave off wearing their 
old clothes, which they throw away. 

" When the body is carried out, a woman sets fire to a piece 
of wood, and waves it backwards and forwards, saying 'There 
is nothing more to be had here.' * This is, no doubt, done with 
a view to showing the soul that everything belonging to it has 
been thrown out. 

"Bodies are either buried in the earth or thrown into the sea 
(if one of the dead man's ancestors has perished in a kaiak). 
The possessions of the deceased — such as his kaiak, weapons, 
and clothes; or, in the case of a woman, her sewing materials, 
crooked knife, etc. — -are laid on or beside the grave, or, if the body 
is thrown into the sea they are laid somewhere upon the beach. 
This seems to be partly due to their fear of a dead person's prop- 
erty and unwillingness to use it." 1 

'FUTURE LIFE. The future life is largely a continuation 
of the life on this earth. There is a large mud hut with plenty 
of rotting seal heads under the benches to eat, and outside splen- 
did hunting grounds with plenty of game and continual sun- 
shine. 

The other world is situated either under the earth and sea 
or between the land and sky. In the over-world region the 
souls dwell in tents around a lake which overflows causing rain 
on the earth. " The souls of the dead can be seen there by night, 
in the form of northern lights, playing football with a walrus 
head. 

" The Eskimos have no hell. Both the above named regions 
are more or less good, and whether the soul goes to the one or 
to the other does not seem to depend particularly upon a man's 
good or evil acts." 2 

" The destination of the soul may partly depend on the treat- 
ment of the body. Paul Egede says that ' it was their custom 
to take people who were sick unto death gently out of bed, and, 
laying them on the floor, to swathe them in their grave-clothes. 
This lowering them down from the bed probably symbolizes 
their wish that after death they may descend beneath the earth. 
But if a man dies before he is taken from the bed, his soul goes 
upward.' On his inquiring why a dog's head was laid beside 
the grave, he was answered ' that it was a custom among some 
of their fellows to lay a dog's head beside a child when it was 
buried, in order that it might scent about and guide the child 



1 Nansen, pp. 245 ff. 

2 Nansen, pp. 235-236. 



[159] 



to the land of spirits when it came to life again, children being 
foolish and witless, and unable to find their own way.' "* 

GOVERNMENT. The government of the Eskimos is truly 
of the patriarchal type for each father is the ruler of his own 
family. There are no chiefs or political military rulers but a 
good hunter is given certain consideration in his little village. 
There is no political or social tie between the villages although 
the people are friendly to each other, and under no consideration 
will they fight. 

THE ESKIMO OF TO-DAY. The Eskimos to-day are a fast 
disappearing race due largely to the fact that the civilization of 
another race has been brought to them, and this they have been 
unable to assimilate. Firearms have been introduced to them, 
with the result that the game of all kinds is rapidly vanishing. 
Money has been given to them, and whereas they formerly gave 
away to their poorer neighbors those things of which they had 
an abundance and which were perishable they now sell them for 
gold to the traders. 

" But worst of all is the irreparable injury which all our 
European commodities have done to him. We have been so 
immoral as to let him acquire a taste for coffee, tobacco, bread, 
European stuffs and finery; and he has bartered away to us his 
indispensable sealskins and blubber, to procure all these things 
which give him only a moment's doubtful enjoyment. In the 
meantime his woman-boat has gone to ruin for want of skins, 
his tent likewise, and even his kaiak, the essential condition of 
his existence, will often lie uncovered on the beach. The lamps 
in his house have often to be extinguished in the winter, because 
the autumn store of blubber has been sold to the Company. 
He himself must go on winter days clad in European rags instead 
of in the warm fur garments he used to have." 

" Disease has of late years increased alarmingly. It is 
especially the Greenlanders scourge, consumption, or more prop- 
erly tuberculosis, which makes ever wider ravages. There can be 
few places in the world where so large a proportion of the popu- 
lation is attacked by it. It is not quite clear whether we imported 
this disease into Greenland, but most probably we did; and at 
any rate, our influence has in more ways than one tended strongly 
to promote the spread of this and other contagious diseases. 
Tuberculosis is now so common that it is almost easier to number 
those who are not attacked by it than those who are." 2 

Lastly, their religion has been largely taken away from them 
and Christianity has been substituted. 

" What part of Christianity is most to be valued, its dogmas 
or its moral teaching? It seems to me that even the best Chris- 
tian must admit it is the latter which is of enduring value; for 
history can teach him how variable and uncertain the interpre- 

1 Nansen, pp. 235-236. 

2 Nansen, pp. 330-332. 

[160] 



tation of the dogmas has always been. Of what value, then, 
have these dogmas, which he understands so imperfectly, been 
to the Eskimo? Can anyone seriously maintain that it is a matter 
of essential moment to a people what dogmas it professes to believe 
in? Must not the moral laws which it obeys always be the matter 
of primary concern? And the Eskimo morality was, as we have 
seen, in many respects at least as good as that of the Christian 
communities. So that the result of all our teaching has been that, 
in this respect too, the race has degenerated. 

And lastly comes this question.: Can an Eskimo who is nomi- 
nally a Christian, but who cannot support his family, is in ill- 
health, and is sinking into deeper and deeper misery, be held 
much more enviable than a heathen who lives in ' spiritual dark- 
ness/ but can support his family, is robust in body, and thoroughly 
contented with life? From the Eskimo standpoint at any rate, 
the answer cannot be doubtful. If he could see his true interest, 
the Eskimo would assuredly put up this fervent petition: God 
save me from my friends, my enemies I can deal with myself." 1 

1 Nansen, pp. 339-340. 



[1611 



CHAPTER XV. 

INDONESIANS. 
THE DYAKS AND OTHER NON-MALAY TRIBES OF BORNEO 

ENVIRONMENT. "Borneo is one of the largest islands in 
the world. Its area is roughly 290,000 square miles, or about 
five times that of England and Wales. Its greatest length from 
northeast to southwest is" 830 miles, and its greatest breadth is 
about 600 miles. It is crossed by the equator a little below its 
center, so that about two-thirds of its area lies in the northern 
and one-third lies in the southern hemisphere. Although sur- 
rounded on all sides by islands of volcanic origin, Borneo differs 
from them in presenting but few cases of volcanic activity." ' 

The general character of the country is mountainous, but 
there are few peaks that rise above ten thousand feet. "In almost 
all parts of the island the land adjoining the coast is a low-lying, 
swampy belt consisting of alluvium brought down by the many 
rivers from the central highlands. This belt of alluvium extends in- 
land in many parts for fifty miles or more, and is especially ex- 
tensive in the south and southeast. 

"Between the swampy coast belt and the mountains intervenes 
a zone of very irregular hill country, of which the average height 
above the sea level is about one thousand feet, with occasional 
peaks rising to five or six thousand feet or more. 

"There seems good reason to believe that at a comparatively 
recent date Borneo was continuous with the main land of Asia, 
forming its southeastern extremity. Together with Sumatra and 
Java it stands upon a submarine bank, which is nowhere more 
than one hundred fathoms below the surface, but which plunges 
down to a very much greater depth along a line a little east of 
Borneo. 

"The climate of the whole island is warm and moist and very 
equable. The rainfall is copious at all times of the year, but is 
rather heavier during the prevalence of the northeast monsoon 
in the months from October to February, and least during the 
months of April and May." 1 

INHABITANTS. "It is not improbable that at one time 
Borneo was inhabited by people of the negrito race, small rem- 
nants of which race are still to be found in islands adjacent to all 
the coasts of Borneo as well as in the Malay Peninsula. No 
communities of the race exist in the island at the present time; 
but among the people of the northern districts individuals may 

1 Hose & McDougall, " The Pagan Tribes of Borneo," pp. 1 ff. 

[162] 



occasionally be met with, whose hair and facial characters strongly 
suggest an infusion of negrito or negroid blood. 

"It is probable that the mixed race of Hindu-Javanese invaders, 
who occupied the southern coasts of Borneo some centuries ago, 
became blended with the indigenous population, and that a con- 
siderable portion of their blood still runs in the veins of some of 
the tribes of the southern districts. 

"Among the Mohammedans, who are found in all the coast 
regions of Borneo, there is a considerable number of persons who 
claim Arab forefathers ; and there can be no doubt that the intro- 
duction of the Mohammedan religion was largely due to Arab 
traders, and that many Arabs and their half-bred descendants 
have held official positions under the Sultans of Bruni. 

"With the exception of certain of the immigrants and their 
descendants, the population of Borneo may be described as falling 
into two great classes; namely, those who have accepted, nomi- 
nally at least, the Mohammedan religion and civilization, and 
those who are pagans. All of these pagan tribes have often been 
classed indiscriminately under the name of Dyaks, though many 
groups may be clearly distinguished from one another by differ- 
ences of culture, belief and custom, and peculiarities of their 
physical and mental constitutions. 

"The Mohammedan population, being of very heterogeneous 
ethnic composition, and having adopted culture of foreign origin, 
which may be better studied in other regions of the earth, where 
the Malay type and culture are more truly indigenous, it seems 
to us to be of secondary interest to the anthropologist as compared 
with the less cultured tribes." 1 

"The name Indonesian is perhaps more properly applied to 
this people which we expect to have resulted from the contact and 
blending of the Caucasiac and Mongoloid stocks in this corner 
of Asia." 2 

The Polynesians likewise are a product of an ancient blend of 
southern Mongols with a fair Caucasiac stock. In both, the 
Caucasiac element predominates, but more so in the Polynesian 
than in the Indonesian. This blending was probably effected at 
a remote period in the southeastern corner of Asia probably before 
the date at which Borneo became separated from the mainland. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. The Dyaks belong to the 
brown race. They average about 5', 3" in height. Most of 
them, during their early age, are very well but sparsely built, and 
the body seems to be in perfect proportion. The skull is dolicho- 
cephalic, the hair is long, curly and black, the cheek bones are 
high, the nose is flat but not so flat as the negro's and the bridge 
of the nose is depressed. The mouth is large and the lips are pro- 
truding. The faces of the women are rounder than those of the 
men, but both sexes have quite a Mongolian cast of countenance. 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, pp. 28 ff. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 2, pp. 227 ff. 

[163] 



CHARACTER. The Dyaks may be ranked above the Malays 
in mental capacity, while in moral character they are undoubtedly 
superior to them. They are simple, honest and truthful to a 
remarkable degree and become the prey of the Malay and Chinese 
traders who cheat and plunder them continually. They are more 
lively, more talkative, less secretive and less superstitious than 
the Malays and are, therefore, pleasanter companions. Many 
travellers who have made a close study of these people claim that, 
so far as they know, none of their property has been stolen by the 
natives on the trips through the country. Even among themselves 
"dishonesty in the form of pilfering or open robbery by violence 
are of very rare occurrence. Yet temptations to both are not 
lacking. Fruit trees on the river bank, even at some distance 
from any village, are generally private property and though they 
offer great temptation to passing crews when their fruit is ripe, 
the rights of the proprietor are usually respected or compensation 
voluntarily paid. Theft within the house or village is practically 
unknown." 1 

These people are temperate in food and drink and the gross 
sensuality of the Chinese and Malay is unknown among them. 
One of the worst features in connection with the Dyak character is 
that of temper. The people are sulky, obstinate and sullen when 
put out or corrected and they are exceedingly apathetic, nor does 
there appear any inclination on their part to rise above their low 
and degraded condition. 

"The Dyaks are not coarse of speech and both men and women 
are strictly modest in regard to the display of the body. Though 
the costume of both sexes is so scanty the proprieties are observed. 
The bearing of the women is habitually modest and though their 
single garment might be supposed to afford insufficient protection, 
they wear it with a habitual skill that compensates for the scanti- 
ness of its dimensions." 2 

"On the whole few if any gross vices are practiced among them 
and if committed they are single acts perpetrated by individuals 
and not by the mass of the people. It must be confessed that their 
morals, both before and after marriage, are somewhat loose, 
though seldom depraved. They are cheerful, patient, gentle and 
often remarkably forbearing of injury and above all exceedingly 
kind to their aged and infirm relatives and especially loving to 
their children, though out of the pale of the family there is little 
charity shown." 3 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. 

AGRICULTURE. Most of the people in the interior of Borneo 
grow rice or padi which is the principal foodstuff. "Throughout 
the year, except during the few weeks when the jungle fruit is 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 2, p. 201. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 2, p. 202. 

3 H. L. Roth, "Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo," pp. 
65 ff. 

[164] 



most abundant, rice forms the hulk of every meal. In years of 
bad harvest, when the supply is deficient, the place of rice has to 
be filled as well as may he with wild sago, cultivated maize, tapioca 
and sweet potatoes. 

"The cultivator has to contend with many difficulties, for in 
the moist, hot climate weeds grow apace and the fields being 
closely surrounded by virgin forests are liable to attacks of pests 
of many kinds. Hence the processes by which the annual crop 
of padi is obtained demand the best efforts and care of all the 
people of each village. 

"The preparation of the land is everywhere very crude, con- 
sisting in the felling of the timber and undergrowth and in burning 
as completely as possible so that those ashes enrich the soil. After 
a single crop has been grown and gathered on the land so cleared 
the weeds grow up very quickly and there is, of course, in the 
following year no possibility of repeating the dressing of wood 
ashes in the same way. Hence it is the universal practice to allow 
the land to lie fallow for at least two years after a single crop has 
been raised, while crops are raised from other lands. During the 
fallow period the jungle grows up so rapidly and thickly that by 
the third year the weeds have almost died out, choked by the 
larger growth. The same land is then prepared again by felling 
the young jungle and burning it as before and a crop is again 
raised from it. 

"Each family cultivates its own patch of land, selecting it by 
arrangement with other families, and works as large an area as 
the strength and number in the roomhold permits. A hillside that 
slopes down to the bank of a river or navigable stream is considered 
the choicest area for cultivation, partly because the felling is 
easier on the slope and because the stream affords easy access to 
the field. 

"When an area has been chosen, the men of the roomhold first 
cut down the undergrowth of a V-shaped area, whose apex points 
up the hill, and whose base lies on the river bank. This done, 
they call in the help of other men of the house, usually relatives 
who are engaged in preparing adjacent areas, and all set to work 
to fell the large trees. In the clearing of virgin forest, when very 
large trees, many of which have at their bases immense buttresses, 
have to be felled, a platform of light poles is built around each of 
these giants to the height of about 15 feet. Two men standing 
upon this rude platform on opposite sides of the stem attack it 
with their small springy-hafted axes above the level of the but- 
tresses. One man cuts a deep notch on the side facing up the hill, 
the other cuts a similar notch about a foot lower down on the oppo- 
site side, each cutting almost to the centre of the stem. This 
operation is accomplished in a surprisingly short time, perhaps 
thirty minutes in the case of a stem two to three feet in diameter. 
When all the large trees within the V-shaped area have been cut 
in this way, all the workers and any women, children or dogs who 

[165] 



may be present are called out of the patch, and one or two big 
trees, carefully selected to form the apex of the phalanx, are then 
cut so as to fall down the hill. In their fall these giants throw 
down the trees standing immediately below them on the hillside; 
these falling in turn against their neighbours, bring them down. 
And so, like an avalanche of widening sweep, the huge disturbance 
propagates itself with a thunderous roar and increasing momentum 
downwards over the whole of the prepared area ; while puny man 
looks on at the awful work of his hand and brain not unmoved, 
but dancing and shouting in wild triumphant delight. 

"The fallen timber must now lie some weeks before it can be 
burned. This period is mainly devoted to making and repairing 
implements to be used in cultivating, harvesting and storing the 
crops and also in sowing, at the earliest possible moment, small 
patches of early or rapidly growing padi together with a little 
maize, sugar cane, some sweet potatoes and tapioca." 1 

After the padi is sown the men build in each patch a small hut 
which is occupied by most of the able-bodied members of the 
roomhold until the harvest is completed. "They erect contriv- 
ances for scaring away the birds; they stick bamboos about eight 
feet in length upright in the ground every 20 to 30 j^ards. Between 
the upper ends of these, rattans are tied, connecting together all 
the bamboos on each area of about one acre. The field of one room- 
hold is generally about four acres in extent; there will thus be 
four groups of bamboos, each of which can be agitated by pulling 
on a single rattan. From each such group a rattan passes to the 
hut, and some person, generally a woman or child, is told off to 
tug at these rattans in turn at short intervals. Upon the rattans 
between the bamboos are hung various articles calculated to make 
a noise or to flap to and fro when the system is set in motion. 
Sometimes the rattan by which the system of poles is set in 
movement is tied to the upper end of a tall sapling one end of 
which is thrust deeply into the mud of the floor of the river. 
The current then keeps the sapling and with it the system of 
bamboos swaying and jerking to and fro. 

"It is the duty of the women to prevent the padi being choked 
by weeds. The women of each roomhold go over each patch 
completely at least twice at intervals of about one month hoeing 
down the weeds with a short handle hoe. The hoe consists of a 
flat blade projecting at right angles from the iron haft." 2 

After the padi is brought in from the fields the women pound 
it and winnow it and finally put it into form to be consumed. 
While the women are doing this the men are out hunting for the 
wild pig, the monkey or the porcupine, or are out on a fishing 
expedition. 

FISHING. "The fish are caught in the rivers in several ways, 
and form an important part of the diet of most of the peoples. 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, pp. 97 ff. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, p. 103. 

[166] 



Perhaps the cast net is most commonly used. This net is used 
both in deep and shallow water. In the former case one man steers 
and paddles the boat while the other stands at the prow with the 
cord of the net wound about the right hand. 

"The bulk of the net is gathered up on his right arm, the free 
end is held in the left hand. Choosing a still pool some two 
fathoms in depth, he throws a stone into the water a little ahead 
of the boat, in the expectation that the fish will congregate about 
the spot as they do when fruit falls from the trees on the banks. 
Then, as the boat approaches the spot he deftly flings the net so 
that it falls spread out upon the surface ; its weighted edge then 
sinks rapidly to the bottom, enclosing any fish that may be 
beneath the net. If only small fish are enclosed, the net is twisted 
as it is drawn up, the fish becoming entangled in its meshes, 
and in pockets formed about its lower border. If a large fish is 
enclosed, the steersman will dive overboard and seize the lower 
part of the net so as to secure the fish. 

JUNGLE PRODUCTS. "The principal natural products 
gathered by the people in addition to the edible fruits are : gutta- 
percha, rubber and camphor. Small parties of men and boys go 
out into the jungle in search of these things, sometimes traveling 
many days up river before striking into the jungle; for it is only 
in the drier upland forests that such expeditions can be under- 
taken with advantage. The party may remain several weeks or 
months from home. They carry with them a supply of rice, salt 
and tobacco, cooking-pots and matches, a change of raiment, 
spears, swords, shields, blowpipes and perhaps two or three dogs. 
On striking into the jungle, they drag their boat on to the bank 
and leave it hidden in the thick undergrowth. While in the 
jungle they camp in rude shelters roofed with their leaf mats and 
with palm leaves, moving camp from time to time. They vary 
their labours and supplement their food-supply by hunting and 
trapping. Such an expedition is generally regarded as highly 
enjoyable as well as profitable." 1 

"Valuable varieties of gutta-percha are obtained from trees 
of more than a score of species. The trees are felled and the stem 
and branches are ringed at intervals of about 18", a narrow 
strip of bark being removed at each ring. The milky, viscid sap 
drips out into leaf-cups, which are then emptied into a cylindrical 
vessel of bark. Water is then boiled in. a large pan beside the tree. 
A little common salt is added to the water and the gutta is poured 
into the boiling water when it rapidly congeals. Then while it is 
in a semi-viscid state it is kneaded with the feet and pressed into 
a shallow wooden frame which is in turn compressed between two 
planks." 2 

It is then cut up into slabs about a foot long and one and one- 
half inches thick and sent on to the market at Singapore, where it 
sells for about $500 the hundred- weight. 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, pp. 149-150. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, p. 151. 

[167] 



Camphor is also collected in great quantities by certain peoples 
in Borneo. This product is formed in the crevices of old trees. 
The tree is cut down, the stem split up and the crystalline scales 
of pure camphor are shaken out onto mats. It is then made up 
in little bundles and wrapped in palm leaves. The large flaked 
camphor brings as much as $30 a pound in the Chinese Bazaar. 

Before a party starts out to collect the camphor omens are 
taken to find out whether the expedition will be. a success or not. 
If they find that the omens are unfavorable, they will postpone 
the trip until some future time. 

IRON. One of the great handicrafts of these people is the 
working of iron. At the present day they obtain most of their 
iron in the form of bars imported from Europe and distributed by 
the Chinese and Malay traders. But thirty years ago nearly all 
the iron ore came from the beds of the rivers and possibly from 
masses of meteoric iron. 

Smelting of the ore is performed by mixing or using charcoal 
in a clay crucible which is embedded in a pile of charcoal. The 
charcoal being ignited is blown to a white heat by the aid of bel- 
lows. The bellows consist of wooden cylinders made from the 
stein of the wild Sago palm. At the bottom of the cylinder is 
placed a small hollow tube. A piston is worked by a man standing 
on a platform raised three or four feet above the ground. "The 
piston consists of a stout stick bearing at its lower end a bunch of 
feathers large enough to fill the bore of the cylinder. When the 
piston is thrust downwards it drives the air before it to the furnace ; 
as it is drawn upwards the feathers collapse allowing the entrance 
of air from above." 1 

BOATS. Boats are used by nearly all the peoples of Borneo 
as the sole means of transportation. These boats are made from 
logs hollowed out and are sometimes as long as 150 feet. The 
trees for these boats are felled in the forest, dragged to the river 
and floated down to the village during flood time. They are 
moored to the shore so that when the flood recedes they are left 
on dry land. A hut is built over them so that the men are pro- 
tected from the heat of the sun. The boats are hollowed out by 
means of axes, and through the use of fire and water. "The whole 
operation, like every other important undertaking, is preceded 
by the finding of omens and it is liable to be postponed by the 
observation of ill omens, by bad dreams or by any misfortunes 
such as death in the house." 2 

HOUSES. "The houses in which the Borneo people live are 
the outcome of a life of constant apprehension of attack from 
head-hunters. In union alone is strength. Surrounded by a dense 
jungle which affords, night and day, up to the very steps to their 
homes, a protecting cover for enemies, the Borneans live, as it 
were, in fighting trim, with their backs to a hollow square. A 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. 1, p. 194. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. I, p. 202. 

[168] 



village of scattered houses would mean the utmost danger to those 
on the outskirts; consequently, houses which would ordinarily 
form a village have been crowded together until one roof covers 
them all. The rivers and streams are the only thoroughfares in 
the island, and village houses are always built close to the river- 
banks, so that boats can be quickly reached; this entails another 
necessity in the construction of the houses. The torrents during 
the rainy season, which, on the western half of the island, last 
from October till February, swell the rivers with such suddenness 
and to such an extent that in a single night the water will overflow 
banks thirty feet high, and convert the jungle round about into 
a soggy swamp; unless the houses were built of stone they would 
be inevitably swept away by the rush of water; wherefore the 
natives build on high piles and live above the moisture and decay 
of the steaming ground. 

"Beneath the houses is the storage-place for canoes that are 
leaky and old, or only half finished and in process of being sprung 
and spread out into proper shape before being fitted up with 
gunwales and thwarts. It is generally a very disorderly and 
noisome place, where all the refuse from the house is thrown, 
and where pigs wallow, and chickens scratch for grains of rice 
that fall from the husking mortars in the veranda overhead. 
Between the houses and the river's bank — a distance of a hundred 
yards, more or less- — the jungle is cleared away, and in its place 
are clumps of cocoanut, or Areca palms, and, here and there, 
small storehouses, built on piles, for rice. In front of the houses 
of the Kayans there are sure to be one or two forges, where the 
village blacksmiths, makers of spear-heads, swords, hoes and axes, 
hold an honorable position. In the shade of the palms, the boat- 
builders' sheds protect from the scorching heat of the sun the 
great logs that are being scooped out to form canoes; the ground 
is eovered with chips, from which arises a sour, sappy odor that 
is almost pungent and is suggestive of all varieties of fever, but 
is really quite harmless. In the open spaces tall, reedy grass 
grows, and after hard rains, a misstep, from the logs forming a 
pathway, means to sink into black, oozy mud up to the knees. 

"Just on the bank of the river there are usually four or five 
posts, about eight feet high, roughly carved at the top to repre- 
sent a man's head; these have been put up after successful head- 
hunting raids, and on them are tied various fragments of the 
enemy — a rib, or an arm, or a leg bone; these offerings drive away 
the evil Spirits who might wish to harass the inmates of the house, 
and they also serve as a warning to enemies who may be planning 
an attack. Such remnants of the enemy are held by no means in 
the same veneration with which the heads, hung up in the house, 
are regarded; after the bits of flesh and bone are tied to the posts 
they are left to the wind and rain, the pigs and chickens. 

"Some years ago it was the custom before building a house to 
thrust into the first excavation, wherein the heavy corner post 

[169] 



was to rest, a young slave girl alive, and the mighty post was then 
planted on her body, crushing out her life, as a propitiatory 
offering to the demons that they should not molest the dwelling. 
This custom has now been abolished and instead of a girl, a pig 
or a fowl has been substituted. 

"The veranda, or main street, of these houses is where all 
public life goes on; here, in the smoky atmosphere that pervades 
the place, councils of war and peace are held, feasts spread, and 
large part of the daily work performed. It is seldom a very bright 
or cheery place; the eaves come down so low that the sunlight 
penetrates only at sunrise and sunset, and the sooty smoke from 
the fires turns all the woodwork to a sombre, mahogany hue. 
The floor is usually of broad, hewn planks, loosely laid upon the 
joists, with little care whether they fit close or warp and bend up 
out of shape, leaving wide cracks through which a small child 
might fall; they show plainly the cuts of the adze, but they soon 
become polished by the leathery soles of bare feet shuffling over 
them from dawn till dark. At intervals of perhaps fifty feet are 
fireplaces — merely shallow boxes about five feet square by six 
inches deep, filled with flat stones imbedded in clay; herein are 
built the fires that give light at night and add to sociability at 
all times; no council or friendly talk is complete without the 
crackle of a fire to enliven it and to keep away evil Spirits. Of 
course, no chimney carries off the smoke, which must disperse as 
best it can among the cobweby beams overhead, after giving a 
fresh coat of soot to the row or bunch of trophy-skulls that hangs 
in the place of honor opposite to the door of the chief's room. 
The odor of burning resinous wood, mingled with other ingredients, 
saturates the veranda, and in after-life the smell of musty garret, 
cedar-wood chests and brush-wood burning in the autumn in- 
stantly recalls the veranda of a Borneo long-house. It must be 
confessed that occasionally there mingles with this aromatic odor 
a tang of wet dog, wallowing pig and ancient fish, but then, after 
all, these are not peculiar to Borneo." 1 

Leading from this porch are the rooms belonging to the indi- 
vidual families. It frequently happens that as many as five 
hundred people occupy one of these houses and so the number of 
rooms is often as large as a hundred. These rooms are about 
twenty-five feet square. In them, along the sides, is a raised 
platform upon which are erected sleeping closets for the parents 
or for the grown daughters. Towards the front part of the room 
is a fireplace made of clay and large flat stones, upon which most 
of the cooking is done. "The sleeping closets partitioned off for 
married couples or for unmarried girls and widows to sleep in, are 
as dark and stuffy as close-fitting planks can make them, and the 
bed is merely two or three broad and smooth planks whereon a 
fine rattan matting is spread." 2 

1 Furness, " Home Life of the Borneo Head Hunters," pp. 4-5. 

2 Furness, p. 10. 

[170] 



MEALS. "On all ordinary occasions, the family eat together, 
usually only twice a day, morning and evening, in the family 
room. In the centre of the room is placed a large wooden dish 
piled high with boiled rice and then, as a plate for each member 
of the family, is set a piece of fresh banana leaf, whereon are a 
little salt and a small quantity of powdered dried fish, highly 
odorous; this is the usual bill of fare, but it may be supplemented 
with a sort of mush or stew of fern-front sprouts and rice, or with 
boiled Caladium roots and roasted wild yams. When there is a 
feast and guests from neighboring houses come to dine, the meals 
are spread in the veranda and the menu is enlarged with pork and 
chicken, cooked in joints of bamboo, which have been stoppered 
at both ends with green leaves, and put in the fire until they are 
burnt through, when the cooking is done to a turn. 

"All hands are plunged into the common dish of plain boiled 
rice, and it is 'excellent form' to cram and jam the mouth as full as 
it will hold. It is, however, remarkable how deftly even little 
children can so manipulate the boiled rice before conveying it to 
their mouths, that hardly a grain is spilt; it always filled me with 
shame when dining en famille with the Kayans or Kenyahs to 
note what a mess of scattered rice I left on the mat at my place, 
while their places were clean as when they sat down; to be sure, 
I did not follow my hosts' example in carefully gathering up and 
devouring all that had fallen on the unswept floor. Whenever I 
apologized for my clumsiness, their courtesy was always perfect; 
the fault was never attributed to me, but rather to their poor 
food and the manner in which it was served. 

"The long intervals between their meals and the unsubstantial 
quality of their food give them such an appetite and force them to 
eat so voraciously that the usual welcome by a Kay an host to 
his guests is, 'Eat slowly,' and this admonition is unfailingly 
given. They seem to regard their family meals as strictly private, 
and would always announce to us that they were going to eat — 
possibly to give us warning not to visit them at that time, and 
they were also quite as punctilious to leave us the moment that 
our food was served." 1 

MARRIAGE. "Very few men have more than one wife. 
Occasionally a chief whose wife has borne him no children during 
some years of married life or has found the labors of entertaining 
his guests beyond her strength will with her consent or even at her 
request take a second younger wife. In such a case each wife has 
her own sleeping apartment within the chief's larger chamber and 
the younger wife is expected to defer to the older one and to help 
her in the work of the house and the field. The second wife would 
be chosen from a rather lower social standing than the first wife, 
who in virtue of this fact maintains her ascendancy more 
easily." 2 

1 Furness, pp. 11-12. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. I, p. 73. 

11711 



When a youth desires to marry, he begins by paying attentions 
to the girl who attracts his fancy. He will frequently be found 
passing the evening in her company in her parents' room. There 
•he will display his skill with the Jew's harp or sing the favorite 
love song of the people varying the words to suit the occasion. 
If the girl looks with favor on his attentions she manages to make 
the fact known to him by presenting him with a cigarette tied with 
a banana leaf in a certain manner. "If his suit makes progress, 
he may hope that the fair one will draw out with a pair of brass 
tweezers the hairs of his eyebrows and lashes, while he reclines 
on his back with his head in her lap. If these hairs are very 
few, the girl will remark that some one else has been pulling them 
out, an imputation which he repudiates. Or he complains of a 
headache, and she administers scalp massage by winding tufts of 
hair about her knuckles and sharply tugging them. When the 
courtship has advanced to this stage, the girl may attract her 
suitor to the room by playing on the Jew's harp, with which she 
claims to be able to speak to him — presumably the language of 
the heart. 

"The youth, thus encouraged, may presume to remain beside his 
sweetheart till early morning, or to return to her side when the old 
people have retired. When the affair has reached this stage, it 
becomes necessary to secure the public recognition which con- 
stitutes the relation a formal betrothal. The man charges some 
elderly friend of either sex, in many cases his father or mother, to 
inform the chief of his desire. The latter expresses a surprise 
which is not always genuine; and, if the match is a suitable one, 
he contents himself with giving a little friendly advice. But if 
he is aware of any objections to the match he will point them out, 
and though he will seldom forbid it in direct terms, he will know 
how to cause the marriage to be postponed. 

"If the chief and parents favour the match, the young man pre- 
sents a brass gong or a valuable bead to the girl's family as a 
pledge of his sincerity. This is returned to him if for any reason 
beyond his control the match is broken off. The marriage may 
take place with very little delay; but during the interval between 
betrothal and marriage the omens are anxiously observed and con- 
sulted. All accidents affecting any members of the village are 
regarded as of evil omen, the more so the more nearly the betrothed 
parties are concerned in them. The cries of birds and deer are 
important; those heard about the house are likely to be bad omens, 
and it is sought to compensate for those by sending a man skilled 
in augury to seek good omens in the jungle, such as the whistle 
of the Trogan and of the spider-hunter, and the flight of the hawk 
from right to left high up in the sky. If the omens are persistently 
and predominantly bad, the marriage is put off for a year, and after 
the next harvest fresh omens are sought. The man is encouraged 
in the meantime to absent himself from the village, in the hope 
that he may form some other attachment. But if he remains true. 

[172] 



and favourable omens are obtained, the marriage is celebrated if 
possible at the close of the harvest. If the marriage takes place 
at any other time, the feast will be postponed to the end of the 
following harvest. After the marriage the man lives with his wife 
in the room of his father-in-law for one, two, or at most three 
years. During this time he works in the fields of the household, 
showing great deference towards his wife's parents. Before the 
end of the third year of marriage, the young couple will acquire for 
themselves a room in the house and village of the husband, in which 
they set up housekeeping on their own account. In addition to 
these personal services rendered to the parents of the bride, the 
man or his father and other relatives give to the girl's parents at the 
time of the marriage various articles which are valuable in propor- 
tion to the social standing of the parties, and which are generally 
appropriated by the girl's parents." 1 

ADOPTION. "Adoption is by no means uncommon. The 
desire for children, especially male children is general and strong, 
but sterile marriages seem to be known among all the peoples. 
When a woman has remained unfertile for some years after her 
marriage the couple usually seek to adopt one or more children. 
They generally prefer children of a relative but may take any child 
even a captive or slave child, whose parents are willing to resign 
all rights in it." 2 

Some of the peoples have a curious symbolic ceremony on adop- 
tion of a child. Both man and wife observe for some weeks before 
the ceremony all of the prohibitions usually observed during the 
latter months of pregnancy. At the time of the ceremony 
the woman goes through the motions or movements of giving birth 
to a child and thus the adopted child becomes an actual member of 
the family. 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. One of the great pleasures of the 
peoples of Borneo is dancing. At every feast at the conclusion 
of peace, during every ceremony, large numbers of dances accom- 
panied by singing and playing on the crudest musical instruments 
are indulged in. Few of these dances however, are more than 
crude unmeaning steps around the camp fire. "One warrior is 
engaged in picking a thorn out of his foot, but is ever on the alert 
for the lurking enemy with his arms ready at hand. This enemy 
is at length suddenly discovered, and after some rapid attack and 
defence, a sudden plunge is made at him and he is dead upon the 
ground. The taking of his head follows in pantomine. The last 
agonies of the dying man were too painful and probably too 
truthfully depicted to be altogether a pleasant sight. The story 
then concludes with the startling discovery that the slain man is 
not an enemy at all but the brother of the warrior who has slain 
him. At this point the dance gives way to what was perhaps the 
least pleasing part of the performance — a man in a fit, writhing in 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. I, pp. 74-76. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. I, p. 77. 

[173] 



frightful convulsions, being charmed into life and sanity by a 
necromantic physician." 1 

TATTOOING. Nearly all of the peoples of the island of 
Borneo tattoo the skin. In many cases the designs are most 
elaborate and the work occupies weeks and even months. As 
a rule the design is first carved on wood and then smeared with a 
sooty preparation and printed on the skin. The figure is then 
punctured in outline with needles dipped in ink and afterwards 
filled up in detail. More ink is poured on the skin and allowed 
to dry. Rice is smeared over the inflamed surface in order to 
keep it cool; for if this is not done it is apt to gather and fester. 
As a rule the hands, feet and legs are tattooed although in some 
cases every portion of the body is decorated. A woman is tattooed 
on the upper part of the hands and over the whole of each forearm, 
on both thighs to below the knee and on the upper part of the feet 
and toes. All women are expected to be tattooed before they are 
allowed to marry, but as a rule a man is not tattooed until he has 
taken a head. 

"Of course, the complete pattern on women is never finished at 
one sitting; it would involve more suffering than can be borne with- 
out, perhaps, serious shock; but the martyrdom is often endured 
for a couple of hours, and then, to fill in chance gaps and weak 
places, that which has been already pricked in, and is become an 
exquisitely tender welt, is mercilessly jabbed and hammered over 
again, not only once but even twice. The instant that the poor 
wretch of a girl is released from the hands, and toes, of her tor- 
mentor, she runs with the swiftness of agony to the river, there 
to soothe with the cool flowing water the frightful, burning ache. 
The absorption of so much foreign matter by the lymphatics 
often induces high fever; suppuration also not infrequently results 
from the septic manner in which the operation is performed; this 
naturally injures the sharpness of the lines. After one session, 
the tattooing is not resumed until the skin is entirely healed unless 
an approaching marriage necessitates the utmost speed; should 
a woman have a child before her tattooing is completed, she is 
lastingly disgraced. The Kenyan women are tattooed only on the 
forearms and hands and on the dorsum of the foot, not on the legs 
or thighs." 2 

PUNCTURED EARS. Another means of increasing the 
personal beauty is to puncture the ears by putting heavy weights 
in them so that eventually the lobes hang down onto the shoulders. 
This is begun when a child is two or three years old, by puncturing 
the ears and placing therein several pewter rings. These are 
gradually increased in number until their weight amounts to 
five or six ounces and by the end of the first year the lobe has been 
lengthened three or four inches. The weights are increased until 

1 H. Ling Roth, "Natives of Sarawak, and British North Borneo," 
Vol. I, p. 250. 

2 Furness, p. 153. 

[174] 



the lobes are seven or eight inches long and supporting three 
pounds of copper rings. It frequently happens that the loop of 
skin thus formed is sufficiently large and elastic to be slipped over 
the head. 

"The men of these same tribes, although they escape from ex- 
treme length of ears, must endure a second mutilation of this appen- 
dage. But this time it is in the upper part that a hole is punched, 
wherein, when they attain to full manhood and have been on a war 
expedition, there is inserted a tiger-cat's canine tooth decorated at 
the large end with a tuft of bead-work, or a silver cap, to keep it 
in place. Before they are entitled to this adornment, the hole, 
at least half an inch in diameter, is kept open by a simple wooden 
plug, which is generally worn, even by warriors, except on cere- 
monial occasions, and especially when in mourning for the dead." 1 

TEETH DECORATION. \Some of the people blacken the 
teeth, for white teeth are considered a frightful disfigurement and 
he or she who for a few days forgets to renew the stain is sure 
to be jeered at by all companions with the scoffing remark that 
"white teeth are no better than a dog's." "Some of the people not 
content with blackening the teeth actually drill holes through and 
through the faces of the six front teeth, and therein insert plugs of 
brass, whereof the outer end is elaborated into stars and crescents. 
Then they finish up by filing the teeth to sharp points! No den- 
tist's chair can hold a more hideous torture than this. The drill — 
usually no more delicate an instrument than the rounded end of a 
file — bores directly through the sensitive pulp of the tooth, tearing 
and twisting a nerve so exquisitely sensitive that but to touch it 
starts the perspiration and seems the limit of human endurance; 
yet an Iban will lie serene and unquivering on the floor while his 
beauty is thus enhanced by some kind and tender-hearted friend. 
Of course, the tooth dies and becomes a mere shell, tanned inside 
and out by repeated applications of the astringent blackening; 
the gums recede, exposing the fangs of the teeth and sometimes 
portions of the alveolar process — I need not add that the mouth of 
a middle-aged Iban is anything but attractive." 2 

RELIGION. The spiritual powers or spirits may be regarded 
as of three principal classes : 

"(1). There are the anthropomorphic spirits, thought of as 
dwelling in remote and vaguely conceived regions and as very 
powerful to intervene in human life. Towards these the attitude 
of the Kayans is one of supplication and awe, gratitude and hope, 
an attitude which is properly called reverential and is the speci- 
fically religious attitude. These spirits must be admitted to be 
gods in a very full sense of the word, and the practices, doctrines, 
and emotions centered about these spirits must be regarded as 
constituting a system of religion. 

(2). A second consists of the spirits of living and deceased 



1 Furness, p. 155. 

2 Furness, pp. 157-158. 



[175] 



persons, and of other anthropomorphically conceived spirits which, 
as regards the nature and extent of their powers, are more nearly 
on a level with the human spirits than those of the first class. Such 
are those embodied in the omen animals and in the domestic pig, 
fowl, dog, in the crocodile, and possibly in the tiger-cat and a few 
other animals. 

(3). The third class is more heterogeneous, and comprises all 
the spirits or impalpable intelligent powers that do not fall into 
one or other of the two preceding classes; such are the spirits 
very vaguely conceived as always at hand, some malevolent, some 
good; such also are the spirits which somehow are attached to the 
heads hung up in the houses. The dominant emotion in the 
presence of these is fear; and the attitude is that of avoidance and 
propitiation." 1 

There are a large number of gods who guard the lives and inter- 
ests, of these people. The most important of these are the God of 
War, three Gods of Life, God of Thunder and Storms, God of Fire, 
Gods of the Harvest, God of the Lakes and Rivers, God of Madness, 
God of Fear and the God who conducts the souls of the dead to 
Hades. " The people seem to have no very clear and generally ac- 
cepted dogmas about these gods. Some assert they dwell in the 
skies, but others regard them as dwelling below the surface of the 
earth. The former opinion is in harmony with the practice of 
erecting a tree before the house with its branches buried in the 
ground and the root upturned when prayers are made on behalf 
of the whole house; for the tree seems to be regarded as in some 
sense forming a ladder or path of communication with the superior 
powers. The same opinion seems to be expressed in the importance 
attached to fire and smoke in prayer and ritual." 2 

"While some gods, those of war and life, of harvest and of fire, 
are distinctly friendly, others, namely, the gods of madness and 
fear, are terrible and malevolent; while the god of thunder and 
those that conduct the souls to Hades do not seem to be predom- 
inantly beneficient or malevolent." 3 

The spirits of the third type are known as Toh. All the spirits 
of this class seem to be objects of fear, to be malevolent or at 
least easily offended and capable of bringing misfortunes of all 
kinds upon human beings. 

"The Toh play a considerable part in regulating conduct; for 
they are the powers that bring misfortunes upon a whole house or 
village when any member of it ignores tabus or otherwise breaks 
customs, without performing the propitiatory rites demanded by 
the occasion. Thus on them, rather than on the gods, are founded 
the effective sanctions of prohibitive rules of conduct. For the 
propitiation of offended Toh, fowls' eggs and the blood of fowls 
and of young pigs are used, the explanations and apologies being 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, p. 4. 

2 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, p. 5. 

3 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, p. 6. 

[176] 



offered generally by the chief or some other influential person, 
while the blood is sprinkled on the culprit or other source of 
offence." 1 

SICKNESS. The Kayans have various ways of treating dis- 
ease. "Thus bodily injuries received accidentally or in battle are 
treated surgically, by keeping splints, bandaging, etc. Familiar 
disorders such as malarial fever are treated medically, that is by 
rest and drugs. Cases of severe pain of unknown origin are gen- 
erally attributed to the malign influence of some Toh and the 
method is usually that of extraction. Madness is also generally 
attributed to possession by some Toh, but in cases of severe illness 
of mysterious origin that seems to threaten to end mortally the 
theory generally adopted is that the patient's soul has left his 
body and the treatment indicated is therefore an attempt to per- 
suade the soul to return. The first two modes of treatment are 
not considered to demand the skill of a specialist for their appli- 
cation, but the third and fourth are undertaken only by those 
who have special powers and knowledge. 

"Among the Kayans the professional soul-catcher, the Dayong, 
is generally a woman who has served a considerable period of 
apprenticeship with some older member of the profession, after 
having been admonished to take up this calling by some being met 
with in dreams, often a dream experienced during sickness. 
If the Dayong decides that the soul of the patient has left 
his body and has gone some part of the journey towards the 
abode of departed souls, his task is to fall into a trance and to 
send his soul to overtake that of his patient and to persuade it to 
return. 

"The Dayong may or may not fall and lie inert upon the ground 
in the course of his trance; but throughout the greater part of the 
ceremony he continues to chant with closed eyes describing with 
words and mimic gestures the doings of his own soul as it follows 
after and eventually overtakes that of the patient." 1 

When all the various efforts are apparently unavailing the des- 
pairing relatives will put the end of a blow-pipe to the dying or 
dead man's ear and shout through it: "Come back, this is your 
home, here we have food ready for you." Sometimes the de- 
parting soul is believed to reply: "I am far from home, I am fol- 
lowing a Toh and don't know the way back." 

"If, in spite of all these efforts, the patient dies, a drum is 
loudly beaten in order to announce the decease to relatives and 
friends gone before, the number of strokes depending upon the 
rank and sex of the departing spirit. The corpse is kept in the 
house during a period which varies from one night for people of the 
lower class, to three nights for middle class folk, and ten clays for a 
chief. During this time the dead man lies in state. The corpse 
has a bead of some value under each eyelid; it is dressed in his 
finest clothes and ornaments, and is enclosed within a coffin 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, pp. 28 ff. 

[177] 



hollowed from a single log, the lid of which is sealed with resin and 
lashed round with rattans." 1 

The body is then taken to the burying-ground near the camp 
and placed in the coffin on top of a high pole. If the man is a 
big chief the pole is decorated, formerly by means of shells but now 
days European crockery is used and a German firm supplies dinner 
plates provided with two perforations which facilitate the attach- 
ments of a plate. In some portions of the country the body is 
taken out and burned. 

HEAD-HUNTING. The reasons for head-hunting are various. 
Some say that heads are taken in order that the spirits of the people 
will become slaves in the next world. Others say that they take 
heads in order that those who were once their enemies thereby 
become their guardians, and their friends become their benefactors. 
The heads, after they are taken, are dried and smoked in a small 
hut made for the purpose and are then brought up to the house 
amid loud rejoicings and singing of the war choruses. "For this 
ceremony all members of the village are summoned from the fields 
and jungle and when all are assembled in the houses everyone puts 
off the mourning garments which have been worn by all since the 
death of the chief for whose funeral rites the heads have been sought. 
Then the procession carries the heads into the house and up and 
down the gallery. The men dressed in their war coats, carrying 
shields and swords, drawn up in a long line, sing the war chorus, 
and go through a peculiar evolution, known as 'Segar lupar.' 
Each man keeps turning to face his neighbours, first on one side, 
then on the other, with regular steps in time with all the rest. 
This seems to symbolize the alertness of the warriors on the .war- 
path, looking in every direction. The heads, which have been 
carried by old men, are then hung up over the principal hearth 
on the beam on which the old heads are hanging; they are sus- 
pended by means of a rattan, of which one end is knotted and the 
other passed upward through the foramen magnum and a hole cut 
in the top of the skull. After this the men sit down to drink and 
the chief describes the taking of the heads, eulogizing the warrior 
who drew first blood in each case, and who is credited with the 
glory of the taking of the head. Then follows a big feast, in every 
room a pig or fowl being killed and eaten; after which more borak 
is drunk, the war chorus breaking out spontaneously at brief 
intervals. Borak is offered to the heads by pouring it into small 
bamboo cups suspended beside them; and a bit of fat pork will be 
pushed into the mouth of each. The heads, or rather the Toh as- 
sociated with them, are supposed to drink and eat these offerings. 
The fact that the bits of pork remain unconsumed does not seem 
to raise any difficulty in the minds of the Kayans; they seem to 
believe that the essence of the food is consumed. 

"The fire beneath the heads is always kept alight in order 
that they shall be warm, and dry, and comfortable. On certain 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, pp. 32 ff. 

[178] 



special occasions they are offered borak and pork in the way men- 
tioned above. 

"On moving to a new house the heads are temporarily lodged in 
a small shelter built for the purpose, and arc I nought up into the 
house with a ceremony like that which celebrates their first instal- 
lation. The Kayans do not care to have in the house more than 
twenty or thirty heads and are at some pains occasionally to get rid 
of some superfluous heads — a fact which shows clearly that the 
heads are not mere trophies of valour and success in war. The 
moving to a new house is the occasion chosen for reducing the 
number of heads. Those destined to be left are hung in a hut built 
at some distance from the house which is about to be deserted. 
A good fire is made in it and kept up during the demolition of the 
great house, and when the people depart they make up in the little 
head-house a fire designed to last several days. It is supposed that, 
when the fire goes out, the Toh of the heads notice the fact, and 
begin to suspect that they are deserted by the people; when the 
rain begins to come in through the roof their suspicions are con- 
firmed, and the Toh set out to pursue their deserters, but owing to 
the lapse of time and weather are unable to track them. The 
people believe that in this way they escape the madness which the 
anger of the deserted Toh would bring upon them." 1 

After the heads have been taken the people scoop out the 
brains through the nostrils. They tear off a bit of the cheek 
skin and eat it as a charm to make them fearless. They cut off 
the hair to ornament their sword-hilts; if the jaws drop they 
fasten them up and if the teeth fall out or if they extract them 
they fill up the cavity with imitation ones of wood. They gener- 
ally plug the nostrils with wooden stoppers, the tongue is cut out, 
the eyes are punctured with a sword so as to allow the fluid con- 
tents to escape. 

The heads of the enemies of the Hill Dyaks are not preserved 
with the flesh and hair adhering to them; the skull only is re- 
tained, the lower jaw being taken away and a piece of wood being 
substituted for it. 

GOVERNMENT. "Each village is absolutely independent of 
all others save so far as custom and caution prescribe that before 
undertaking any important affair (such as removal of the village 
or warlike expedition) the chief will ask the advice and if necessary 
the co-operation of the chiefs of the neighboring villages. The 
people of the neighboring villages, especially the families of the 
chiefs are bound together by many ties of kinship; for inter- 
marriage is frequent. 

"The minor and purely domestic affairs of each house are 
settled by the house chief, but all important matters of general 
interest are brought before the village chief. 

"The degree of authority of the chiefs and the nature and 
the degree of penalties imposed by them are prescribed in a gen- 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. II, pp. 21-22. 

[179] 



eral way by custom, although as regards the former much depends 
upon the personal qualities of each chief and as regards the latter, 
much is left to his discretion. 

"The chief also is responsible for the proper observation of 
the omens and for the regulation of malan (tabu) affecting the 
whole house; and, he takes the leading part in social ceremonies 
and in most of the religious rites collectively performed by the 
village. He is regarded by other chiefs as responsible for the be- 
haviour of his people, and above all, in war he is responsible for 
both strategy and tactics and the general conduct of operations. 

"For the maintenance of his authority and the enforcement of 
his commands the chief relies upon the force of public opinion, 
which, so long as he is capable and just, will always support him, 
and will bring severe moral pressure to bear upon any member 
of the household who hesitates to submit. 

"In return for his labours on behalf of the household or village 
the Kayan chief gains little or nothing in the shape of material 
reward. He may receive a little voluntary assistance in the 
cultivation of his field; in travelling by boat he is accorded the place 
of honour and ease in the middle of the boat, and he is not expected 
to help in its propulsion. His principal rewards are the social 
precedence and deference accorded him and the satisfaction found 
in the exercise of authority. 

"If the people of a house or village are gravely dissatisfied 
with the conduct of their chief, they will retire to their padi-fields, 
building temporary houses there. If many take this course, a 
new long house will be built and a new chief elected to rule over it, 
while the old chief remains in the old house with a reduced fol- 
lowing, sometimes consisting only of his near relatives. 

"The office of chief is rather elective than hereditary, but the 
operation of the elective principle is affected by a strong bias in 
favour of the most capable son of the late chief; so in practice a 
chief is generally succeeded by one of his sons. An elderly chief 
will sometimes voluntarily abdicate in favour of a son. If a chief 
dies, leaving no son of mature age, some elderly man of good stand- 
ing and capacity will be elected to the chieftainship, generally by 
agreement arrived at by many informal discussions during the 
weeks following the death. If thereafter a son of the old chief 
showed himself a capable man as he grew up, he would be held to 
have a strong claim on the chieftainship at the next vacancy. If 
the new chief at his death left also a mature and capable son, there 
might be two claimants, each supported by a strong party; the 
issue of such a state of affairs would probably be the division of the 
house or village, by the departure of one claimant with his party 
to build a new village. In such a case the seceding party would 
carry away with them their share of the timbers of the old house, 
together with all their personal property." 1 

1 Hose & McDougall, Vol. I, pp. 65-67. 

[180] 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE POLYNESIANS. 

GEOGRAPHY. The word Polynesia, which is of Greek deri- 
vation, and means "many islands", is given to the scattered group 
in the Pacific which forms a great triangle with the apex at Easter 
Island in the east and the base between New Zealand and Hawaii 
in the west. The other more important islands in this group are 
The Caroline Islands, The Gilbert Islands, Samoa, The Friendly 
Islands, Tahiti, and The Society Islands. As in the case of Mel- 
anesia most of these islands are of volcanic origin although some 
of them Have been formed from coral and are therefore almost 
circular in form. Frequently a single coral reef, enclosing in its 
midst a shallow sea or lagoon, will contain several small islands. 
The soil of a large number of them is but slightly productive, 
and they are almost destitute of fresh water. The chief nu- 
trative plants are the sweet potato, cocoa-palms, and bread fruit 
trees, while there are no native animals of importance. The 
islands in the west are the most productive, but many of those 
in the east are uninhabitable because of their mountainous char- 
acter. In these latter neither plant nor animal life are able to get 
any firm foothold. 

'PHYSIQUE AND CHARACTER. The Polynesians belong 
to the brown race and show in many respects a close relationship 
to the Malays, although some of the people in the west have inter- 
married with the Melanesians and hence exhibit some of the 
characteristics of that race. However, in describing these people 
we will try and take typical Polynesians, that is, those who are 
relatively pure. The skulls are dolichocephalic which is often 
exaggerated by artificial deformation; low well-shaped foreheads, 
often causing the facial angle to be equal to that of the Europeans ; 
noses full; faces round; eyes small, lively, usually placed horizon- 
tally, with remarkably wide opening and eloquent expression; 
cheek bones projecting forward rather than sideways; mouths well 
shaped despite thick lips. The color of the hair varies from 
black to chestnut brown and is closely waved or curly but never 
tufted or woolly as in the negroid races. The beard, when allowed 
to grow, is usually sparce and wiry, but as a rule it is pulled out in 
order that the elaborate face tattooing may be seen. On the body 
there is very little hair. The men are usually tall and stalwart- 
looking, but they possess very little bodily strength due in part at 
least to the indolent life which they lead. 

"Under great outward vivacity lies the dullness of the uncul- 
tured nature. Even among the Christian Polynesians one is 
struck by the indifference with which they meet a disgraceful 
death at the hands of the executioner; and the tranquillity of 

[181] 



children at the death of their parents, particularly in blood- 
steeped New Zealand, has been remarked. Human sacrifices 
and cannibalism must have left their traces in the disposi- 
tion. These evil qualities are cloaked by a childish levity. The 
task of the criminal law is materially lightened by their garrulity; 
they cannot keep a secret, even to save themselves from the scaf- 
fold."! 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. The life of most of the Polynesians 
is one of great ease, for nature has been kind to them in her dis- 
position of the things necessary for this life. A small amount 
of work suffices for a large number of people, although the con- 
ditions here are not as favorable as those found in Melanesia. 
Like the people of this latter district, they obtain much food from 
the sea, and the canoes from which they fish are usually made from 
logs and have a long outrigger to steady them. The chief vegetable 
food is the sweet potato which they really cultivate with great 
care. It is considered a sacred crop and hence the planting and 
harvesting are attended with many ceremonies. The first potatoes 
dug are offered to the gods in order to insure good crops in the 
future. 

Of the animal foods, the most important are birds, fish, swine, 
dogs and rats. These latter are considered to be a great delicacy 
and are prepared in the following way. The fur is singed off and 
the bones crushed, care being taken not to break the skin. The 
pieces of bone are extracted through the posterior orifice but the 
intestines and their contents left undisturbed, the vegetable sub- 
stance in the stomach serving for ready-made stuffing. When 
cooked they are like large juicy sausages." 2 

During times of plenty there are two meals a day, one about 
ten in the morning and the other at four in the afternoon. The 
food is cooked in the underground ovens in a manner very similar 
to that of the Melanesians. They had, up to a short time ago, no 
pottery and hence when they wanted to boil water they put red 
hot stones into a wooden trough. The food is served in small 
baskets made of green flax, and each guest is presented with one. 
When the meal is over they are thrown away. 

CANNIBALISM. Cannibalism while not common in the 
Hawaiian Islands yet in New Zealand it was very prevalent up to 
modern times. All of the prisoners taken in battle with the 
exception of a few, who were kept for slaves, were treated in this 
manner. There is an account of one chief who after he had put 
250 to death turned to an attendant and said, "lam tired. Let the 
rest live." And so they were kept as slaves which was considered 
a greater disgrace than being eaten. "When bodies could not all 
be eaten, some of the flesh was stripped from the bones and dried 
in the sun, being hung on stages for that purpose. The flesh 
was then gathered into baskets and oil poured over it, the oil 

1 Ratzel, " The History of Mankind," Vol. I, p. 189. 

2 E. Tregear, " The Maori Race," p. 106. 

[182] 



being rendered down from the bodies. This was done to prevent 
it spoiling from dam]). Sometimes the flesh was potted into cala- 
bashes as birds were potted. The body of a chief might be flayed 
and the skin dried for covering hoops and boxes. The bones were 
made into fish-hooks or spear-heads. If the deceased had been a 
great chief care was taken to degrade every part of the skeleton. 
It frequently happened that the skull was made into a water 
vessel or other receptacle." 1 

HOUSES. The houses are always set on the ground and are 
for the most part elaborately carved. "They are oblong in shape, 
with low side walls, gabled ends, one small doorway, a window aper- 
ture placed in the end near the door, and both the two latter open- 
ing out on to a wide verandah. Inside they are from the absence 
of light and ventilation, dark and stuffy, but the closely woven 
thatch of the roof and walls exclude draughts and make them 
snug and cozy." 2 In each village there is a large assembly house 
which is built with great ceremony and the sacrifice of a human 
victim. 

MARRIAGE. Among the people of New Zealand early mar- 
riage is not the rule, in fact the men are often very mature before 
they take a wife. Very considerable freedom is allowed to a 
young girl before marriage, and is taken full advantage of, prob- 
ably, so far as flirtation and love-making are concerned. There 
is, however, a social public opinion in a native village which will 
check any approach to licentiousness, and no doubt there are 
plenty of offences against what we should consider propriety. 
However, personal modesty and individual pride make degrees 
of strictness here as elsewhere. It is chiefly among the lower class 
girls that questionable conduct is permitted, the daughters of a 
chief are surrounded by many restrictions. 3 Children are often 
bethrothed at birth and even before they are born, and in these 
cases a strict surveillance is kept over them until the marriage has 
been consummated. As a rule the girls have a right to show pref- 
erence for one man and often the love making is carried on by the 
girls. It frequently happens that a man will reject an offer with 
the result that there is much shame and irritation on the part of the 
girl. One of the legends tells of a stranger coming into the camp. 
He was seen first by the chief's youngest daughter and she claimed 
him for her husband. The elder protested that by right of senior- 
ity she should have him. The father settled the dispute by saying, 
"Oh my elder daughter! let your younger sister have the stranger- 
chief as husband; she saw him first." The elder girl obeyed, but 
was so angry that she left home for good. 

If the proposal sent by a high born girl is rejected, tragic con- 
sequences often follow, and even suicide on the part of the girl 
may result. There is no marriage ceremony among the lower 

1 E. Tregear, pp. 356 ff. 
2 E. Tregear, p. 271. 
3 E. Tregear, p. 284. 

[183] 



classes, but the night before a girl intends matrimony she will call 
all her friends together and announce to them, "I am going to 
take a husband. So and so is his name." This is thought to be 
sufficient. 

" Although in the middle ranks of life and in cases of regular 
betrothal parents arranged the matter when the parties concerned 
were young, yet when engagements were entered into at a more 
adult age the parents' consent was not so important as that of the 
bride's brothers and uncles. This was on account of land-transfer 
complications. An ancient and favourite way of marriage 
was to get up a war-party (or mimic war-party) and carry off the 
bride by force. There were so many relatives to be consulted, 
some of whom would be sure to feel aggrieved if their consent was 
not obtained, that abduction was easiest. There was often feigned 
abduction and feigned defence, but it was at times very hard on 
the girl." 1 

"An aristocratic marriage was accompanied by a great feast. 
As a general rule the house for the new couple was erected by the 
father of the bridegroom if the bride was to leave her own people 
to go to those of her intended husband. If, however, a chief had 
only high fighting-rank (not territory) and came to live with his 
wife, the bride's relatives built the house for them. The relatives 
generally determined when the bridal feast was to take place, and 
in the meantime the mats were woven, food collected, etc. At the 
wedding feast the bride appeared clothed in new mats and ac- 
companied by her brothers and uncles. The priests uttered charms 
and incantations over the married couple, followed by long recitals 
of genealogies of both bride and bridegroom, and when the couple 
had been led to their new house the proceedings terminated." 2 

"A man of noble birth or position was allowed to take more than 
one wife, and generally his principal wife, at least, was a high-born 
woman. Whatever their rank, they were generally well treated 
and were held in high respect. Sometimes all the three or four 
wives were of exalted birth, and to a chief thus honoured, mar- 
riage became a means whereby his influence could be greatly 
augmented. Each wife would bring her retinue, her slaves and 
other property to add to the resources of the household and enable 
her husband to exercise that princely hospitality which beseemed 
the position of a man of aristocratic rank. The wives did not al- 
ways live together in the husband's house. They (or any one of 
them) might prefer to live on their own lands and manage them, 
being visited by their husbands at certain times. If they dwelt 
together they seldom quarrelled among themselves; the status 
of each was fixed by custom and this was seldom departed from, 
although if a new wife was suddenly brought home there was a 
flutter in the dove-cote. They had little jealousy of each other; 
each had her own cultivation to look after and polygamy seemed 



1 E. Tregear, p. 293. 

2 E. Tregear, p. 295. 



[184] 



perfectly natural in a society where men were killed off in the con- 
stant fighting and divorce was easy Old and sickly wives have 
been known to urge the husband to bring home a younger woman 
as wife, to share the work and ensure numerous offspring, for 
they believed barrenness to be always the woman's fault. The 
rule, too, that a brother should take his deceased brother's wife 
or wives and slaves sometimes swelled the number of the household 
to a great extent. Nevertheless there was hardly ever more than 
six wives in a household. There were often women slaves or 
servants about the house and they not only performed the menial 
work but were supposed to be sexually at the master's dis- 
posal." 1 

Ellis, in speaking of the morality of the inhabitants on the 
island of Tahiti says, "Their common conversation, when engaged 
in their ordinary avocations, was often such as the ear could not 
listen to without pollution, presenting images, and conveying senti- 
ments, whose most fleeting passage through the mind left contami- 
nation. Awfully dark, indeed, was their moral character and not 
withstanding the apparent mildness of their disposition, and the 
cheerful vivacity of their conversation, no portion of the human 
race was ever sunk lower in brutal licentiousness and moral deg- 
radation, than this isolated people." 2 

SELF-GRATIFICATION. 

CLOTHES AND BODY DECORATIONS. The clothes and 
body decorations of the Polynesians are more elaborate than those 
found among other peoples of Oceania. The basis for much of 
their clothing is a bark cloth usually made from the Paper Mul- 
berry or other similar trees. The bark is detached in long strips 
which are then immersed in water for several hours, and when they 
are sufficiently soaked are taken out and laid on a flat piece of wood. 
The inner bark is now detached from the outer by scraping with a 
piece of shell, and carefully washed. The strips are laid out side 
by side, until they cover a space of the required size, three layers 
being placed one above the other. They are left thus until the 
following day, by which time the percolation of the water which 
they have absorbed through the washing causes them to adhere 
together. The whole piece is now taken to a flattened beam or 
board, and beaten or felted together by repeated blows from 
short mallets of hard wood, the sides of which are usually grooved 
in different ways. During this operation water is continually 
thrown upon the cloth. When the piece has been felted to a 
uniform consistency, it is dried, and finally ornamented with 
coloured designs, either applied with the free hand, or more rarely 
printed by means of large frames or stamps, as in Samoa or Fiji. 
When very large sheets are required, smaller pieces are joined 
together by means of gum made from the breadfruit tree, or by 
stitching. Unless oiled, tapa rapidly deteriorates when exposed 

1 E. Tregear, pp. 296-297. 

2 W. Ellis, " Polynesian Research," Vol. I, p. 97. 

[185] 



to the rain. The whole process of manufacture is carried out by 
women. 1 

Both sexes wear around the waist a girdle made either from this 
cloth or from plaited grasses, which usually hangs down to the 
knees. From the shoulders hangs a cloak which is sometimes 
nine or ten feet long by seven wide. They are made from dog 
skins, woven grass, or bark cloth, and are very elaborately dec- 
orated with different designs. The most beautiful are covered 
with a solid mass of red or yellow feathers taken from the parrot 
and because of their great value are worn only by the very wealthy 
or by the nobility. Around the neck and in the ears are worn 
ornaments made from jade or other stones, bones, and teeth. 
These people all employ flowers in their personal decoration. 
They make long garlands which they twine around their necks, 
and put bright colored blossoms in their hair. 

The most important parts of the body decorations are paint- 
ing and tattooing. Frequently the whole face will be reddened, 
but at times half is painted red and half black. Before going 
out to war, the warriors are daubed in the most terrible manner 
in order to scare the enemy. Tattooing is indulged in more by the 
men than by the women perhaps because it is founded on a religious 
idea. The actual work is regarded as a sacred profession, and is 
performed by priests to the accompaniment of prayers and hymns. 
The figures depicted are often those of sacred animals like snakes 
and lizards. They tattoo the face, eyelids, nose, lips, and from 
the waist down by an operation which is very painful. The figures 
are first drawn on the skin, then a little stick, pointed bone or stone 
is tapped with a wooden mallet so as to form a series of punctures 
along the lines. These holes are then filled in with the coloring 
matter and allowed to heal. It is especially painful on the face, 
and the inflammation produced on the tender flesh is so acute that 
the work cannot be completed at one time. Women think that 
red lips are a disgrace, and so before marriage they are tattooed 
with blue lines. When she is a woman of high rank a day is set 
apart for the ceremony and a human victim, who has been pro- 
cured for the purpose by a war party, is sacrificed. The body 
is eaten by all of the assembled people. 

AMUSEMENTS. The pleasures of the children are very sim- 
ilar to those found in the most civilized and uncivilized countries. 
Such things as whipping tops, skipping rope, wrestling, throwing 
spears and ball playing are indulged in. In some of these, especi- 
ally wrestling, the older people, both men and women, participate. 
Of course, dancing and singing play important parts in the enter- 
tainments. Some of the dances are of a pantomimic nature, but 
most of them are merely gymnastic, where skill in jumping, 
bodily contortions and ability to keep time to the music are con- 
sidered the requisites of a good dancer. 

1 Handbook to the Ethnographical Collection of the British Museum, 
pp. 149-150. 

[186] 



Of all the Polynesians the Hawaiians have developed music 
to the greatest extent and much of it is pleasing to the ears of the 
civilized man. Whether this music is entirely natural or not we 
do not know, but by many it is supposed that they took the early 
missionary hymns and transposed them for their own religious 
and secular use. All the music has a very pathetic wail to it 
which is accentuated by the methods of playing the guitar. The 
instrument is placed flat on the knees. The fingers of the right 
hand slide up and down the strings while those of the left do the 
picking. The accompaniment is carried by the ukulele, which 
resembles in shape a very small guitar. 

In these same islands surf-riding is one of the greatest amuse- 
ments. Both sexes become so expert that they can balance 
themselves, lying, kneeling or standing on a narrow board which 
carries them landwards on the curling crests of the waves. 

RELIGION. The religion of the Polynesians is largely made 
up of the worship of the gods and goddesses occupying the forces 
of nature. Other deities of worship inhabit the heavens, the lower 
world, the volcanoes. Around all of these has been built up an 
elaborate mythology wherein all the natural phenomena of 
nature are accounted for by the good or bad actions of these 
super-human beings. So closely do many of the myths follow 
those of ancient Greece and of early biblical times that it is not 
taking too much for granted if we suppose that their composition 
came after the white people reached the islands. 

Many of the Polynesians are a blood-thirsty people and in 
carrying out their religious rites, sacrifice not only animals but 
also human beings. In Hawaii, before the higher civilization was 
brought to them, "human sacrifices were offered whenever a 
temple was to be dedicated, or a chief was sick, or a war was to 
be undertaken; and these occasions were frequent." 1 In the 
same place, when the goddess Pele showed her anger by causing 
the volcano Kilauea to erupt, men or women were thrown into 
the crater as a sacrifice. The myth concerning the goddess Pele, 
who was supposed to inhabit the volcano, Kilauea, is as follows: 
She, with her attendant spirits reveled in the flames; "the un- 
earthly noises of the burning mass were the music of their dance, 
and they bathed in the red surge of the fiery billows as it dashed 
against the sides of the crater. This fire-loving family emigrated 
from Tahiti soon after the deluge. The volcano was their principal 
residence, although occasionally they renovated their constitu- 
tions amid the snows of the mountains. On such occasions their 
journeys were accompanied by earthquakes, eruptions, heavy thun- 
der and lightning. The numerous eruptions with which the island 
has been devastated were ascribed to their enmity. They were 
held in highest reverence, and to insult them, break their taboos, 
or neglect to send offerings, was to call down certain destruction. 
At their call, Pele would spout her lava and destroy the offenders. 

1 Encycl. Brit, under Hawaii, p. 88. 

• [187] 



Vast numbers of hogs were thrown into the crater when any fear 
of an eruption was entertained." 1 

In Samoa, where they worshipped the sun, human sacrifices 
were offered every day for eighty days. 2 In New Zealand the 
war god receives the heart, liver and scalp of the first man slain. 

GOVERNMENT. "The government of the South Sea Islands, 
like that in Hawaii, was an arbitrary monarchy. The supreme 
authority was vested in the king, and was hereditary in his family. 
It differed materially from the systems existing among the Mar- 
quesians in the east, and the New Zealanders in the southwest. 
There is no supreme ruler in either of these groups of islands, but 
the different tribes or clans are governed by their respective chief- 
tains each of whom is, in general, independent of any other. Regard- 
ing the inhabitants of Tahiti, and the adjacent islands, as an unciv- 
ilized people, ignorant of letters and the arts, their modes of govern- 
ing were necessarily rude and irregular. In many respects, how- 
ever, their institutions indicate great attention to the principles 
of government, an acquaintance with the means of controlling 
the conduct of man, and an advancement in the organization of 
their civil polity, which, under corresponding circumstances, is 
but rarely attained, and could scarcely have been expected. 

"Their government, in all its multiplied ramifications, in its 
abstract theory, and in its practical details, was closely inter- 
woven with their false system of religion. The god and the king 
were generally supposed to share the authority over mankind. 
The latter sometimes personated the former, and received the 
homage and the requests presented by the votaries of the imaginary 
divinity, and at other times officiated as the head of his people, 
in rendering their acknowledgments to the gods. The office 
of high-priest was frequently sustained by the king — who thus 
united in his person the highest civil and sacerdotal station 
in the land. The genealogy of the reigning family was usually 
traced back to the first ages of their traditionary history; and the 
kings, in some of the islands, were supposed to have descended 
from the gods. Their persons were always sacred, and their 
families constituted the highest rank recognized among the 
people." 3 

1 J. J. Jarves, " History of Hawaiian Islands," p. 27. 

2 Tregear, p. 470. 

3 W. Ellis, Vol. Ill, pp. 93-94. 



[188] 



CHAPTER XVII. 



INDIA—THE HINDUS. 

GEOGRAPHY. India occupies an area of about 1,766,000 
square miles and is situated partly in the tropical and partly 
in the temperate zones. The country is in the form of a gigantic 
triangle 1,900 miles long, which may roughly be divided into 
three parts: the Himalayas, the river plains, and the three- 
sided table land in the southern portion. The Himalayas in 
the north extend in the shape of a scimiter with its edge facing 
southward for a distance of 1,500 miles. These mountains have 
formed an almost impenetrable barrier across the north, north- 
east and northwest, so that it has been difficult for an invading 
army to enter the country. There are very few passes and 
these are at an altitude which makes travel difficult. The 
word "Himalaya'" in Sanscrit means "snow house." This 
region has been called "The Roof of the World," for if the 
Pyrenees were piled on the Alps, the Himalayas would tower 
above them for 4,000 feet. 

At the southern foot of these mountains lies the second 
great division of India — the river plains of the Indus, the 
Ganges, and the Brahmaputra. They extend from the Bay of 
Bengal on the east to the Arabian Sea on the west, and con- 
tain the richest and most densely crowded provinces of the 
country. 

The third division of the country comprises the three-sided 
table-land which covers the southern part of the peninsula. 
This area, which is known as the Deccan, is bounded on two 
sides by the Ghat mountains, and on the north by the Vindhya 
hills. The Ghats take most of the moisture from the monsoons, 
thus making the territory which they bound far from fertile. 

WEATHER. The seasons of India may be divided into 
four : the cold season during January and February ; the hot 
season, including the months of March, April, and May; the 
southwestern monsoon period, during June, July, August, Sep- 
tember, and October; and the retreating monsoon period in 
November and December. In southern India the temperature 
is constant, while in the north there are great extremes of heat 
and cold. During the hot season in the northern plains the 
heat is greater than in any other portion of the world, yet it is 
possible to get to a region of snow and ice in a very few hours. 
The Himalayas therefore play a very important part in the life 
of the foreigners living in India. 

HISTORY. India at the present time is a degraded nation, 
but in the past it had a civilization that ranked with that of 

[189] 



Greece and Egypt. It was the home of Hinduism and Budd- 
hism (which latter is more than thirty centuries old), and 
which was ten centuries old before Great Britain had emerged 
from barbarism. A great deal of the civilization of China and 
Japan had its origin here. ' ' Our earliest glimpses of India 
disclose two races struggling for the soil, the Dravidians, a 
dark skinned race of aborigines, and the Aryans, a fair- 
skinned people, descending from the northwestern passes. Ul- 
timately the Dravidians were driven back into the southern 
table-land, and the great plains of Hindustan were occupied by 
the Aryans, who dominated the history of India for many 
centuries thereafter. ' n 

These latter belonged to that splendid Aryan, or Indo-Ger- 
manic stock, from which the Brahman, the Rajput, and the 
Englishman descended. The earliest home of these people was 
in Central Asia, and from there they started East and West. 
One branch founded Greece, another Rome, a third Persia, a 
fourth pre-historic Spain, and a fifth became the ancient inhabi- 
tants of England. They carried with them their civilization 
and language from which most of the languages of Europe are 
descended. 

"We learn the early history of these people from the hymns 
of the Rig-Veda, and from these we are able to reconstruct the 
civilization of the Aryans. "The earlier hymns exhibit the 
Aryans on the north-western frontiers of India, just starting 
on their long journey. They show us the Aryans on the banks 
of the Indus, divided into various tribes, sometimes at war 
with each other, sometimes united against the 'black-skinned' 
aborigines. Caste, in its later sense, is unknown. Each father 
of a family is the priest of his own household. The chieftain 
acts as father and priest of the tribe ; but at the greater festi- 
vals he chooses some one specially learned in holy offerings to 
conduct the sacrifice in the name of the people. The chief him- 
self seems to have been elected. Women enjoyed a high posi- 
tion, and some of the most beautiful hymns were composed by 
ladies and queens. Marriage was held sacred. Husband and 
wife were both 'rulers of the house' and drew near to the gods 
together in prayer. The burning of widows on their husbands' 
funeral-pyres was unknown, and the verses in the Veda which 
the Brahmas afterwards distorted into a sanction for the 
practice have the very opposite meaning. 

"The Aryan tribes in the Veda are acquainted with most of 
the metals. They have blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and gold- 
smiths among them, besides carpenters, barbers, and other 
artisans. They fight from chariots, and freely use the horse, 
although not yet the elephant, in war. They have settled down 
as husbandmen, till their fields with the plough, and live in vil- 
lages or towns. But they also cling to their old wandering life, 
1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " India," W. W. Hunter. 

[190] 



with their herds and 'cattle pens.' Cattle, indeed, still form 
their chief wealth, the coin in which payments of fines are made 
— and one of their words for war literally means a 'desire for 
cows/ They have learned to build 'ships', perhaps large river- 
boats, and seem to have heard something of the sea. Unlike 
the modern Hindus, the Aryans of the Veda ate beef, used a 
fermented liquor or beer made from the soma plant, and offered 
the same strong meat and drink to their gods. Thus the stout 
Aryans spread eastwards through northern India, pushed on 
from behind by later arrivals of their own stock, and driving 
before them, or reducing to bondage, the earlier 'black- 
skinned' races. They marched in whole communities from one 
river-valley to another, each house-father a warrior, husband- 
man and priest, with his wife and his little ones, and cattle." 1 

There are at the present time in India four well marked 
ethnographic divisions. First, the non- Aryans or aborigines ; 
second, the Aryan, or Sanskrit-speaking peoples ; third, a mix- 
ture of the above two ; and fourth, the Mohammedan invaders, 
who came down from the northwest. These are well scattered 
over all India, but usually in each locality there will be a 
preponderance of one or the other stock. However, the bar- 
riers between these divisions have become so confused that 
the classification is made not along lines of blood or language, 
but on that of caste and religion. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. The Hindus are of middle size, 
the limbs are delicate and slender. The color of the skin varies 
from a dark yellow to a deep bronze or soot black, which may 
be accounted for by their mixture w T ith the Dravidians. The 
hair, which is abundant on the face and head, is black, long 
and curly. The shape of the skull is mesocephalic. The face is 
oval with fairly high zygomatic arches. The eyes are large 
and dark ; the eyebrows are curved and finely formed. The 
nose has frequently a Roman shape. 

CASTE. Before taking up a discussion of the social life 
of the people of India, it is important to study the caste system, 
for in it lies the basis for all of their actions both social and 
religious. 

"The cardinal principle which underlies the system of 
caste is the preservation of purity of descent, and purity of 
religious belief and ceremonial usage." 1 

There are four principal castes in India with many sub- 
divisions. The inventors of this social despotism were naturally 
the highest in the scale, the Brahmans or priests, who claim that 
they sprang from the mouth of Brahma, the Supreme Being. 
The Rajahs, or warriors, are the second class, and sprang from 
the arms of Brahma. The third class, who are the Vaisyas, or 
landholders and merchants, came from the thighs of the god ; 
while the last class, the Sudras, or cultivators and menials, 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " India." 

[191] 



came from the feet of Brahma. Below these are the Pariahs, 
who are casteless, and are regarded as almost too vile to belong 
to humanity. 

The Hindu adheres to this system with a tenacity which 
ends only with his life. ' ' The different castes will by no means 
intermarry; sometimes women of high castes elope with men 
of lower ones; and more frequently men of high caste take into 
their houses women that belong to the lower; — but inter- 
marriage there is none. The distinction of caste is so rigidly 
adhered to, that a man of a lower caste might be dying, but a 
man of a higher one would refuse to let him take water out of 
his cup, lest it should be denied. A Hindu would, in general, 
rather see his fellow man die than pass the bounds of caste to 
help him. According to this system the son is not at liberty 
to follow any trade or profession that he pleases, but must 
perforce continue in that which his father and forefathers 
have practised before him ; — doing otherwise would be followed 
by excommunication." 1 

BRAHMANS. When a Brahman boy reaches the age of 
eight or nine, a thin cord, called Janeo, is placed around his 
body. Before this time he is considered a mere child, who 
possesses no religion and who can eat without bathing, but 
after the cord is put on, he becomes one of the class of priests 
and must conform to the rules which govern them. 

"A young Brahman, when he can learn, begins to study at 
an early age. All the Sanscrit writings are considered sacred and 
divine and their grammars take the same rank. Sanscrit has 
become a dead language, and very few people can understand 
it well : and though this is the case, learned Brahmans, who in- 
tend to give their boys a good education, would never think 
of teaching them Hindee first, which in the present age is their 
mother tongue and which the boys could learn easily. Were 
they to learn Hindee first, they would be better prepared to 
study Sanscrit : but it is beneath their dignity, and thus a boy 
at once commences to repeat Sanscrit sounds, parrot-like, out of 
his grammar without understanding in the least degree what 
he repeats ; this he does for seven or eight years ; after which 
the tutor begins to explain to him what he has been repeating 
so long." 2 

"After studying one or two grammars the young Brahman 
goes on with other Sanscrit books, if he be in good circum- 
stances and if his father wishes him to be a tolerably learned 
man ; — if not, he only studies that book which teaches him the 
duties of a priest; this being soon over, those who stop here 
are not much wiser than those who have never studied any 
thing." 3 

1 I. Dass, " Manners and Customs of the Hindus of Northern 
India," p. 15. 

2 I. Dass, p. 16. 
3 1. Dass., p. 17. 

[192] 



There are four stages through which a pious Brahman musl 
pass during life. He must be a religious student, a householder, 
an anchorite, and a religious mendicant. 

"On the youth having been invested with the badge of his 
caste, he was to reside for some time in the house of some re- 
ligious teacher, well read in the Veda, to be instructed in the 
knowledge of the scriptures and the scientific or theoretic 
treatises attached to them, in the social duties of his caste, 
and in the complicated system of purificatory and sacrificial 
rites. According to the number of Vedas he intended to study, 
the duration of this period of instruction was to be, probably 
in the case of Brahmanical students chiefly, of from twelve to 
forty-eight years; during which time the virtues of modesty, 
duty, temperance and self-control were to be firmly implanted 
in the youth's mind by his unremitting observance of the most 
minute rules of conduct. During all this time the student had 
to subsist entirely on food obtained by begging from house to 
house: and this behaviour towards the preceptor and his family 
was to be that prompted by respectful attachment and implicit 
obedience. In the case of girls no investiture takes place, but 
for them the nuptial ceremony is considered as an equivalent 
to that rite. On quitting the teacher's abode, the young man 
returns to his family and takes a wife. To die without leaving 
legitimate offspring, and especially a son, capable of perform- 
ing the periodical rites of obsequies, consisting of offerings of 
water and balls of rice, to himself and his two immediate an- 
cestors, is considered a great misfortune by the orthodox 
Hindu. There are three sacred 'debts' which a man has to 
discharge in life, viz., that which is due to the gods, and of 
which he acquits himself by daily worship and sacrificial rites ; 
that due to the ancient sages and inspired seers of the Vedic 
texts, discharged by the daily study of the scripture; and the 
'final debt' which he owes to his manes, and of which he 
relieves himself by leaving a son. To these three some au- 
thorities add a fourth, viz., the debt owing to humankind, 
which demands his continually practising kindness and hos- 
pitality. Hence the necessity of a man's entering into the 
married state. When the bridegroom leads the bride from her 
father's house to his own home, and becomes a householder, the 
fire which has been used for the marriage ceremony accompan- 
ies the couple to serve them as their domestic fire. It has to 
be kept up perpetually, day and night, either by themselves 
or their children, or, if the man be a teacher, by his pupils. 
If it should at any time become extinguished by neglect or 
otherwise, the guilt incurred thereby must be atoned for by an 
act of expiation. The domestic fire serves the family for pre- 
paring their food, for making the five necessary daily and other 
occasional offerings, and for performing the sacramental rites 
above alluded to." 1 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " Brahmanism," H. J. Eggeling, p. 384. 

[193] 



"When the householder is advanced in years, 'when he 
perceives his skin become wrinkled and his hair grey, when he 
sees the son of his son,' the time is said to have come for him 
to enter the third stage of life. He should now disengage him- 
self from all family ties — except that his wife may accompany 
him, if she chooses — and repair to a lonely wood, taking with 
him his sacred fires and the implements required for the daily 
and periodical offerings. Clad in a deer's skin, in a single piece 
of cloth, or in a bark garment, with his hair and nails uncut, 
the hermit is to subsist exclusively on food growing wild in 
the forest, such as roots, green herbs, and wild rice and grain. 
He must not accept gifts from any one, except of what may 
be absolutely necessary to maintain him ; but with his own 
little hoard he should, on the contrary, honour, to the best 
of his ability, those who visit his hermitage. His time must 
be spent in reading the metaphysical treatises of the Veda, in 
making oblations, and in undergoing various kinds of privation 
and austerities, with a view to mortifying his passions and pro- 
ducing in his mind an entire indifference to worldly objects. 
Having by these means succeeded in overcoming all sensual 
affections and desires, and in acquiring perfect equanimity 
towards everything around him, the hermit has fitted himself 
for the final and most exalted order, that of devotee or religious 
mendicant. As such he has no further need of either mortifica- 
tions or religious observances; but 'with the sacrificial fires 
reposited in his mind, ' he may devote the remainder of his days 
to meditating on the divinity. Taking up his abode at the foot 
of a tree in total solitude, 'with no companion but his own 
soul,' clad in a coarse garment, he should carefully avoid 
injuring any creature or giving offence to any human being 
that may happen to come near him. Once a day, in the evening, 
'when the charcoal fire is extinguished and the smoke no longer 
issues from the fire-places, when the pestle is at rest, when the 
people have taken their meals and the dishes are removed,' he 
should go near the habitations of men, in order to beg what 
little food may suffice to sustain his feeble frame. Ever pure of 
mind he should thus abide his time, 'as a servant expects his 
wages, ' wishing neither for death, nor for life, until at last his 
soul is freed from its fetters and absorbed in the eternal spirit, 
the impersonal self-existent Brahma." 1 

WARRIORS. The duty of the members of this class, as set 
down in the Hindu scriptures, is to fight for their country. 
They are allowed to study the Sanskrit language, but must not 
read the Rig-Veda. The members of this class are proud and 
look with contempt on all castes below them. As we see in 
the section on marriage, they do not want daughters, and if 
any are born to them they put them to death. 

LANDHOLDERS AND MERCHANTS. Practically all the 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " Brahmanism." 

[194] 



trade of India, both wholesale and retail, is carried on by this 
third class. Many of them have little shops hardly more than 
coops in the wall, in which they sit in a cross-legged position 
surrounded by their wares. Many of this class are wealthy 
bankers and money-changers, especially in the larger towns 
and cities where this business is very lucrative. Of all the four 
principal classes into which Hindus are divided, this is by far 
the wealthiest, and some of its members are possessed of im- 
mense riches. 

' ' The people of this class are very effeminate. They cannot 
endure hard work ; and when «they quarrel and have high 
words, they seldom come to blows. The saying is very common 
in the country that when they quarrel and threaten each other, 
'their bark is worse than their bite,' instead of using the 
stones and brickbats that may be lying loose in the streets, 
they will pretend to loosen those that are fast in the ground ; 
these they are unable to loosen at the time, and thus save 
themselves the exertion required in throwing stones at each 
other. As they very seldom do any hard work, the majority 
of them, being merchants in some way or other, sit in their 
shops, tailor-fashion, the whole day, and at the same time live 
on nourishing diet, they are inclined to be corpulent. They are 
the most avaricious class in the countrv. ' n 

SUDRAS OR CULTIVATORS AND MENIALS. "The 
Sudras are the most numerous of the four main castes. They 
form, in fact, the mass of the population, and added to the 
Pariahs, or outcasts, they represent at least nine-tenths of the 
inhabitants. When we consider that the Sudras possess almost 
a monopoly of the various forms of artisan employment and 
manual labour, and that in India no person can exercise two 
professions at a time, it is not surprising that the numerous 
individuals who form this main caste are distributed over so 
many distinct branches." 2 

"It should be remarked, however, that those Sudra castes 
which are occupied exclusively in employments indispensable 
to all civilized societies are to be found everywhere under 
names varying with the languages of different localities. Of 
such I may cite, amongst others, the gardeners, the shepherds, 
the weavers, the Panchalas (the five castes of artisans, com- 
prising the carpenters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, founders, and 
in general all workers in metals), the manufacturers and ven- 
ders of oil, the fishermen, the potters, the washermen, the bar- 
bers, and some others. All these form part of the great main 
caste of Sudras ; but the different castes of cultivators hold the 
first rank and disdainfully regard as their inferiors all those 
belonging to the professions just mentioned, refusing to eat 
with those who practise them. ' ' 3 

1 I. Dass, p. 31. 

2 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, p. 16. 

3 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, p. 17. 

[195] 



In this fourth class there are also the writers, teachers, and 
lawyers. As few people are able to write in India, these men 
act as scribes, send off letters and record deeds for lands sold. 

EXPULSION FROM CASTE. There are various offences 
which will cause a man to be expelled from his caste and often 
it is impossible for him to be reinstated. 

"This expulsion from caste, which follows either an in- 
fringement of caste usages or some public offence calculated 
if left unpunished to bring dishonour on the whole community, 
is a kind of social excommunication, which deprives the un- 
happy person who suffers it of all intercourse with his fellow 
creatures. It renders him, as it were, dead to the world, and 
leaves him nothing in common with the rest of society. In 
losing his caste he loses not only his relations and friends, but 
often his wife and his children, who would rather leave him to 
his fate than share his disgrace with him. Nobody dare eat 
with him or even give him a drop of water. If he has marriage- 
able daughters nobody asks them in marriage, and in like 
manner his sons are refused wives. He has to take it for 
granted that wherever he goes he will be avoided, pointed at 
with scorn, and regarded as an outcast. 

"If, after losing caste, a Hindu could obtain admission into 
an inferior caste, his punishment would in some degree be 
tolerable ; but even this humiliating compensation is denied 
to him. A simple Sudra with any notions of honour and pro- 
priety would never associate or even speak with a Brahman 
degraded in this manner. It is necessary, therefore, for an 
outcaste to seek asylum in the lowest class of Pariahs if he 
fail to obtain restoration to his own; or else he is obliged to 
associate with persons of doubtful caste. There are always 
people of this kind, especially in the quarters inhabited by 
Europeans ; and unhappy is the man who puts trust in them ! 
A caste Hindu is often a thief and a bad character, but a Hindu 
without caste is almost always a rogue." 1 

Slight unintentional offences will often cause a man or a 
whole family to be expelled. "A number of Brahmans as- 
sembled together for some family ceremony once admitted to 
their feast, without being aware of it, a Sudra who had gained 
admittance on the false assertion that he belonged to their 
caste. On the circumstance being discovered, these Brahmans 
were one and all outcasted, and were unable to obtain re- 
instatement until they had gone through all kinds of formali- 
ties and been subjected to considerable expense. 

"I once witnessed amongst the shepherds, an instance of 
even greater severity. A marriage had been arranged, and in 
the presence of the family concerned, certain ceremonies which 
were equivalent to betrothal amongst ourselves had taken 
place. Before the actual celebration of the marriage, which 

1 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, pp. 38-39. 

[196] 



was fixed for a considerable time afterwards, the bridegroom 
died. The parents of the girl, who was very young and pretty, 
thereupon married her to another man. This was in direct 
violation of the custom of the caste which condemns to per- 
petual widowhood girls thus betrothed, even when, as in this 
case, the future bridegroom dies before marriage has been 
consummated. The consequence was that all the persons who 
had taken part in the second ceremony were expelled from 
caste, and nobody would contract marriage or have any inter- 
course whatever with them. A long time afterwards I met 
several of them, well advanced in age, who had been for this 
reason alone unable to obtain husbands or wives, as the case 
might be." 1 

SELF-MAINTENANCE. India is almost : entirely an agri- 
cultural country. According to one of the latest census reports 
two-thirds of the total population are employed in connection 
with the land, while not one-tenth of that proportion is sup- 
ported by any other single industry. "The prosperity of agri- 
culture therefore is of overwhelming importance to the people 
of India, and all other industries are only subsidiary to this 
main occupation. This excessive dependence upon a single in- 
dustry, wdiich is in its turn dependent upon the accident of the 
seasons, upon a favorable or unfavorable monsoon, has been 
held to be one of the main causes of the frequent famines which 
ravage India." In one year alone over 5,000,000 people died 
from lack of nourishment, due to the failure of the rains. 

"But though agriculture thus forms the staple industry of 
the country, its practice is pursued in different provinces with 
infinite variety of detail. Everywhere the same perpetual as- 
siduity is found, but the inherited experience of generations has 
taught the cultivators to adapt their simple methods to differing 
circumstances. For irrigation, native patience and ingenuity 
have devised means which compare not unfavorably with the 
colossal projects of government." 2 After a good rainy season 
and at other times when there are heavy falls of rain the agri- 
culturist is saved the trouble of artificial irrigation. During 
the rainy season they build low walls of earth around their field 
in order to catch all of the moisture wdiich falls. Wells are sit- 
uated near most of the fields to be used when the period of 
drought sets in. The water is draw T n up in leather bags by 
means of bullocks and dumped into little ditches which carry 
it to various parts of the fields. 

"A farmer's business is known to be flourishing, or other- 
wise, by the number of ploughs that he can use on his farm and 
the number of pairs of bullocks that he can keep. If he is a 
poor man, he can cultivate a few acres only and can keep one 
pair of bullocks. The produce of such a piece of land can sup- 
port (provided there be a timely and sufficient quantity of rain) 

1 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, pp. 39-40. 

2 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " India." 

[197] 



a family of six or seven persons, — this numiber including two or 
three children. If a farmer is in good circumstances, he can 
cultivate more land and keep four or five pairs of bullocks . 
his income is larger, and he can have a larger house, a great 
many brass cooking and eating utensils in his house. The 
women of his family can have silver and gold ornaments, and 
use finer and gayer stuffs for their dresses ; he can qftener use 
finer flour and more ghee (clarified butter) in the preparation 
of his dishes; he can with ease and convenience keep two or 
three cows and buffaloes, and have an abundance of milk and 
butter; and he can spend larger sums in weddings and feasts 
and thus make more noise in the world than his poorer neigh- 
bors ; in fine, he can live in comparative luxury." 1 

While the natives know how to fertilize their fields and 
realize the value of the rotation of the crops, yet, because of the 
conservatism of their religion, they have not advanced as rap- 
idly as they should. They use the same kind of a crude 
wooden plough pulled by 'bullocks as was used hundreds of 
years before Christ; the grain is threshed by being trodden on 
by bullocks, and it is winnowed by being thrown up in the air, 
so that the wind may carry away the chaff. 

One of their most important crops is wheat, in fact, India 
is second or third in the world production of this grain. How- 
ever, most of it is exported, for the common people are too poor 
to eat it. Their food consists largely of millet and, in some 
places, rice. To the native peoples perhaps the palm tree has 
the greatest value, for they get from it many articles of daily 
use. From the bark they make ropes and mats; from the 
leaves, baskets, hats and fans ; from the fibre of the nut, cloth- 
ing, sails and nets ; from the sap, sugar ; from the green fruit, 
milk ; from the ripe fruit, solid food, and from the kernel, oil. 

Cattle, as an economic resource, do not figure to any extent 
in India, due to the fact that animals are held sacred and hence 
cannot be killed for food. They do, however, use the milk for 
drinking and making butter. Should a man of the higher caste 
eat any beef, he would be ostracized at once, and no power on 
earth could reinstate him. Even to ask a Hindu if he eats 
meat, although it is a well known fact that he does so, is to 
insult him deeply ; while to offer meat at a meal to a guest with 
whom one is not intimate would be the height of rudeness. 
"Hindus who eat meat do so only in the privacy of their own 
families, or in company with near relatives or intimate friends. 
Even the common Sudras do not offer meat at their festive 
gatherings, such as wedding feasts. Were they to do so, 
their guests would consider themselves insulted, and would 
leave immediately." 2 

1 I. Dass, " Domestic Manners and Customs of the Hindus," pp. 
39-40. 

2 Dubois & Beauchamp, " Hindu Manners," Vol. I, p. 192. 

[198] 



The sacred cows and hulls are allowed to wander at will 
through the temples and streets of the cities, hedecked with 
garlands put there by the worshiping people, and allowed to 
ea1 where they will at the food stalls in the bazars. The Brit- 
ish government has done all in its power to rid the towns of 
these sacred pests. Large numbers of these animals are led 
into the jungle where the wild beasts finish the good work. 

The religious veneration of animals is carried to such an 
extent that the people will not even kill those that are danger- 
ous to life and limb. In one year over 19,000 people died from 
snake bites, 947 from tigers, 260 from leopards, and 182 from 
wolves. During this same period 80,000 head of cattle were 
killed by these various animals. 

BUILDINGS. There is in India a combination of a very 
high and a very low civilization. This is shown in no clearer 
way than in the contrast between the various types of build- 
ings, which range from the crudest mud huts, to one of the most 
beautiful buildings the world has ever seen — the Taj Mahal. 
The poor people in the country live in mud houses, one story 
high, those a little better off have two stories, and still others 
three. In all these houses each room has only one door, and 
that just high enough for a man. Several houses usually face 
a small open scpiare where the members of the related families, 
w T ho occupy the houses, sit and talk, and where the cattle are 
kept during the hot part of the day. Each house has two or 
three small rooms, one of which is used for cooking and the 
others for sleeping and storing things. In front of each house 
is a small porch where water is kept and where the women sit. 
At the gate leading into the courtyard there is a room where 
the men sit when not at work, and where strangers and visitors 
are received. Strangers may go into the court yard whenever 
there is an occasion for it, but not otherwise. When they do 
go in, it is never without permission, and always with sombody 
that belongs in the house. 1 

TAJ MAHAL. In contrast to the simple mud buildings in 
which most of the people live, is the Taj Mahal which has been 
called "the most splendidly poetic building in the world." This 
famous mausoleum was erected in 1632 at Agra by Shah Jehan 
to hold the remains of his favorite wife. In order to complete 
this edifice, 20,000 men labored twenty years. 

The Taj stands on a platform of white marble 18 feet high 
and 313 square with tapering minarets at the corners, 133 feet 
high. The building itself is 186 feet square and is crowned by 
a dome 210 feet high. "The interior consists of four-domed 
chambers in the corners and an octagon in the center. The 
walls are of white marble and have flowers sculptured on them. 
Around and in these are inlaid agate, jasper, bloodstone, and 

1 I. Dass, pp. 120-121. 

[199] 



camelion. Surrounding the octagon in the center is a screen 
of alabaster and so finely is this carved that it needs the touch 
to determine whether it is made of lace or of stone. In the 
center are two marble cenotaphs completely covered with 
mosaic-work in precious stones, one hundred being sometimes 
used to represent a single flower ; and through this mass of floral 
decorations runs a delicate Persian script, telling the story of 
these royal lovers in lines of which each letter is a gem. ' n The 
bodies of the Shah and his wife lie in these tombs. 

HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS. The Hindus have two meals a 
day — the one in the morning between eleven and twelve, the 
other in the evening, two or three hours after sunset. The 
workers get up in the morning and start to work at once. 
Before the first meal they hathe either in a river or with water 
drawn from a well. They are then clean and will not touch a 
person of lower caste for fear of being polluted. When they 
eat, they take off all their clothes, except a piece of cloth around 
the waist. 

Meals are served on the kitchen floor, which is kept very 
clean. The men eat before the women. The latter do all of 
the cooking, bringing in the food and serving it. Should a 
man while eating be touched by a person of lower caste, he will 
immediately get up and leave his food and eject even that 
which he has in his mouth. 

MARRIAGE. The Hindus believe that a women is made 
for marriage and hence as soon as a girl is born, they begin to 
make plans for her wedding, but the matter is not actively 
entered into until she has reached the age of five or six. As 
she grows up, her ears are constantly assailed with the talk of 
marriage. Continually hearing of her own wedding and that 
of other children about her, her mind is elated with the idea of 
being married soon, and by hearing so much spoken of it, nat- 
urally thinks it is a state of the greatest happiness, and that 
there is no happiness but it. 

"When a girl has reached the age of six or seven, and the 
parents decide that it is time for her to marry, they call to- 
gether the nearest relations and request them to find a suitable 
boy for their girl. The boys are usually sixteen, twenty, or 
even older before they marry. After much deliberation, a 
boy is found and his horoscope is compared with that of the 
girl's. If the priest finds that the stars of the boy are more 
powerful than those of the girl, he says that the marriage will 
be successful ; but if the stars bear the opposite relation, he 
advises the parents of the girl to look for another boy. 

When the boy has been decided upon, and the financial ar- 
rangements on both sides are satisfactory (for the girls are 
always sold to the highest bidder), the first ceremony takes 

1 J. L. Stoddard, " India," p. 224. 

[200] 



place at the home of t he groom. The girl's parents send their 
priest and the family barber laden with clothes, money, and 
jewels, to the groom and his parents. After worship by both 
sides the barber puts a mark on the forehead of the boy; this 
is the first seal of the marriage. After several days' visit these 
emissaries depart for home, laden with presents to the bride. 

On the day of the wedding- the groom goes to the home of 
the bride. He is attended by many male relatives and friends, 
and with the procession are musicians, singers and dancers. 
There is much music, shooting of guns and fireworks, if the 
groom is wealthy enough to afford these things ; if not, he has 
as much show as he is able to pay for. As they approach the 
house of the bride, some of her relatives come out to give 
presents to the groom and to bid him welcome. When the 
party reaches the house, the ceremonies begin in a shed, which 
has been erected in the courtyard. 

During the ceremonies prayers are offered, presents ex- 
changed, hands ceremonially washed and sacrifices made. The 
most significant rite in the wedding is the tying together the 
upper garments of the bride and groom, while the priest re- 
peats the names of certain gods. The father of the girl puts 
her hand into that of the groom and they both walk around a 
fire, in which incense is burning. After a few more ceremonies 
the groom is addressed as follows : 

"The bride says to you — 'If you live happy, keep me happy 
also ; if you be in trouble, I will be in trouble too ; you must 
support me, and must not leave me when I suffer. You must 
always keep me with you and pardon all my faults ; and your 
poo j as, pilgrimages, fasting, incense, and all other religious 
duties, you must not perform without me ; you must not de- 
fraud me regarding conjugal love ; you must have nothing to 
do with another woman while I live ; you must consult me in 
all that you do, and you must always tell me the truth. Vish- 
noo, fire, and the Brahmans are witnesses between you and me.' 
To this the bridegroom replies — -'I will all my lifetime do 
just as the bride requires of me. But she must also make me 
some promises. She must go with me through suffering and 
trouble, and must always be obedient to me ; she must never 
go to her father's house, unless she is asked by him; and when 
she sees another man in better circumstances or more beautiful 
than I am, she must not despise or slight me. ' To this the girl 
answers — -'I will all my life do just as you require of me; 
Vishnoo, fire, Brahmans and all present are witnesses between 
us.' After this the bridegroom takes some water in his 
hand, the Pandit repeats something, and the former sprinkles 
it on the bride 's head ; then the bride and the bridegroom 
both bow before the Sun in worship. After this the bride- 
groom carries his hand over the right shoulder of the bride and 

12011 



touches her heart, and then puts some bundun (a coloured pow- 
der) on her mang or line on her head, and puts his shoes on 
her feet, but immediately takes them off again." 1 

The wedding is now over, but if the bride is too young, she 
goes back to live with her parents. If she is old enough, a fur- 
ther rite is performed, in which the ibride sits on a board be- 
longing to the groom, and the groom on one belonging to the 
bride. The married women then put bells and ornaments on 
the feet of the bride, and the ceremony is complete. 

WIDOWS. "A woman's period of temporal happiness 
ceases when she becomes a widow; her state then is utterly 
helpless, unless she has a grown up son, or an affectionate 
brother, or some other kind near relation to support her. If she 
has nobody to help her, she takes off all her ornaments, which 
were never off her person during her husband's lifetime; but 
if she has a son or a brother to maintain her, she leaves two or 
three of them on her person to signify that she is not utterly 
helpless. A widow does not wear fine or attractive clothes; — 
this is to show her bereaved state. Widows among the higher 
classes can never marry again. They might be very young, 
and might never have lived with their husbands, still they can 
never be joined to other men; the simple performance of the 
marriage ceremonies prevents this. As death cuts down both 
the old and the young, many boys, of course, who are married, 
die ; their wives may be six or seven years old ; these poor crea- 
tures are called widows, and have to pass their lives in misery ; 
from that time they have not the least prospect of happiness, 
and the world is to them quite gloomy and dark. As might be 
expected, many of them, when in the vigour of youth or woman- 
hood, elope with men, who offer them temptations. Widows of 
the middle and lower classes can marry again, and many of 
them who are in the prime of life, or those who have no means 
of support, avail themselves of this liberty. Some of them, 
however, who have friends to help them, refuse a second mar- 
riage — even though they are young, and beautiful, and have 
in consequence advantageous offers. The reason of this re- 
fusal is the regard they have for the memory of their departed 
husbands." 2 

Before the occupation of India by the English the custom of 
sutteeism was in practice, that is, a widow was expected to 
throw herself upon the funeral pyre of her husband. By so 
doing she expected to have several million years with her hus- 
band in Paradise and at the same time escape the horrors of the 
life of a widow on earth. When a man had more than one wife, 
it was the custom for them to draw lots to see which was to be 
the fortunate one to accompany her husband. 



1 I. Dass, loc. cit., p. 186. 
2 1. Dass, pp. 176-177. 



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THE POSITION OF WOMAN. The position of women 
in India is little better than that of slaves. "Their only voca- 
tion in life being to minister to man's physical pleasures and 
wants, the} r are considered incapable of developing any of 
those higher mental qualities which would make them more 
worthy of consideration and also more capable of playing a 
useful part in life. Their intellect is thought to be of such a 
very low order, that when a man has done anything particu- 
larly foolish or thoughtless, his friends say he has no more 
sense than a woman. One of the principal precepts taught in 
Hindu books, and one that is everywhere recognized as true, 
is, that woman should be kept in a state of dependence, and 
subjection, all their lives, and under no circumstances should 
they be allowed to become their own mistresses." 1 

"As a natural consequence of these views, female education 
is altogther neglected. A young girl's mind remains totally 
uncultivated, though many of them have good abilities. In 
fact, of what use would learning or accomplishments be to 
women who are still in such a state of domestic degradation and 
servitude ? All that a Hindu woman need know is how to grind 
and boil rice and look after her household affairs, which are 
neither numerous nor difficult to manage. 

"Courtesans, whose business in life is to dance in the 
temples and at public ceremonies, and prostitutes, are the only 
women who are allowed to learn to read, sing, or dance. It 
would be thought a disgrace for a respectable woman to learn 
to read ; and even if she had learnt, she would be ashamed to 
own it. As for dancing, it is left absolutely to courtesans ; and 
even they never dance with men. Respectable women some- 
times amuse themselves by singing when they are alone, look- 
ing after their household duties, and also on the occasions of 
weddings or other family festivities ; but they would never 
dare to sing in public or before strangers." 2 

"As a rule, a husband addresses his wife in terms which 
show how little he thinks of her. Servant, slave, etc., and other 
equally flattering appellations, fall quite naturally from his 
lips. 

"A woman, on the other hand, never addresses her husband 
except in terms of the greatest humility. She speaks to him as 
my master, my lord, and even sometimes my god. In her awe 
of him she does not venture to call him by his name ; and should 
she forget herself in this way in a moment of anger, she would 
be thought a very low class person, and would lay herself 
open to personal chastisement from her offended spouse." 1 

"The principal daily household duties of a Hindu wife are 
grinding, washing the floor of the room where they cook and 
eat, drawing water, cooking, and scouring cooking utensils, 

1 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, p. 339. 

2 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, p. 340. 

[203] 



jugs and plates. Some of those that are wealthy are exempt 
from most of these duties, but the majority perform them." 1 

CHILDREN. "Among the Hindus there is a great desire 
for male children for the following reasons : — in the first place, 
they expect them to perpetuate their names ; secondly, they 
hope to be supported by them in old age ; thirdly, for the per- 
formance of funeral obsequies ; and lastly, they are pleased 
with the thought that there will be an increase of their nearer 
relations or of those who will be under their immediate pater- 
nal government. For these reasons that man is considered very 
highly favoured who has only boys in his family. These ob- 
jects are not accomplished by female children; they have con- 
sequently no desire for daughters and girls are not valued like 
boys." 2 

"Rajpoots or people of the warriors' caste have a great 
dislike to female issue and have been in the habit of killing 
their daughters some way or other at the time of their birth. 
The reason why these Rajpoots do not like to have female 
children is that according to their peculiar custom they have 
to be at a great expense in marrying their daughters; the 
poorest must expend hundreds, and the wealthiest thousands 
of rupees. The former never expect to be able to marry them 
on account of their poverty, and the latter would rather destroy 
their daughters than part with their wealth." 3 

AMUSEMENTS. The amusements of the Hindus are very 
similar to those found among others on this stage of develop- 
ment and therefore cannot be gone into much in detail. They 
enjoy such things as horse-racing, fencing, shooting, and wrest- 
ling. 

There is one class of men known as jugglers or fakirs, who 
travel from town to town, exhibiting their tricks. Many of 
them are very clever in their ability to deceive the public and 
a great number of Europeans who have, at various times, tried 
to fathom their secrets have failed. They will, for instance, 
throw a rope into the air, and it apparently stays there without 
any means of support. A man will climb the rope and when 
he reaches the top disappear. Another favorite trick is to grow 
a small tree out of doors in a very short time from a seed. 

In this same general class of people are the snake charmers. 
These men have baskets of snakes which they carry with them. 
By blowing on little flutes, the snakes are caused to coil around 
in a most fantastic manner. The men claim to be able to rid a 
house of any snakes that may be in it. But before undertaking 
to do it, they put, unseen, one of their own snakes into a hole 
in the house. Then when they blow the flute, the snake comes 

1 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, p. 342. 

2 I. Dass, loc. cit., pp. 152-153. 
3 1. Dass, p. 171. 

[204] 



out and crawls hack into its basket, the man takes his fee, and 
goes on to the next town. 

There are frequenl puppet shows, which are very similar 
to the Punch and -Judy shows in this country. A man stands 
in back of the little stage to work the figures while another in 
front recites and sings to accompany the actions. These little 
shows are carried from place to place and set up wherever an 
audience can be collected. 

The greatest source of amusement and diversion to the 
Hindu is the dancing girls. They appear at weddings and on 
many of the principal holidays. These dancing girls lead an 
irregular life. They are all good looking and some have ex- 
traordinary beauty, for upon this depends their success in this 
occupation. The following description is given by one who has 
witnessed many of their dances : ' ' The dancing girls who per- 
form at private entertainments adapt their movements to the 
taste and character of those before whom they exhibit. Here, 
as in public, they are accompanied by musicians playing on 
instruments resembling the violin and guitar. Their dances 
require great attention from the dancers' feet being hung with 
small bells, which act in concert with the music. Two girls 
usually perform at the same time ; their steps are not so mazy 
and active as ours, but much more interesting ; as the song, the 
music, and the motions of the dance combine to express love, 
hope, jealousy, despair, and the passions so well known to 
lovers, and very easy to be understood by those who are ignor- 
ant of other languages." 1 

CLOTHING. "A woman's costume consists of a simple 
piece of cotton cloth, made all in one piece, and woven ex- 
pressly for the purpose. It is from 30 to 40 feet long, and rather 
more than 4 feet wide. All sorts and kinds are made, in every 
shade and at every price, and they always have a border of a 
contrasting colour. The women wind part of this cloth two 
or three times round their waists, and it forms a sort of narrow 
petticoat which falls to the feet in front; it does not come so 
far down behind, as one of the ends of the cloth is tucked in 
at the waist after passing between the legs, which are thus 
left bare as far as, or even above, the calf. This arrangement 
is peculiar to Brahman women ; those of other castes arrange 
their draperies with more decency and modesty. The other end 
of the cloth covers the shoulders, head, and chest. Thus the 
clothing for both sexes is made without seams or sewing — an 
undeniable convenience, considering how often they have to 
bathe themselves and wash their garments; for Brahman 
women have to observe the same rules of purification as the 
men, and are equally zealous in the performance of this duty. 
The custom of women veiling their faces has never been 
practised in India, though it has been in use among many other 

1 I. Dass, p. 151. 

[205] 



Asiatic nations from time immemorial. Here the women always 
go about with their faces uncovered, and in some parts of the 
country they also expose the upper half of their bodies." 1 

The Hindus are all fond of ornament and a man's wealth 
is judged by the amount of gold, silver, and precious stones 
which he and the members of his family can wear. Silver and 
gold rings are worn on the arms, ankles, iD the ears, and even 
through the nose. Around their necks they wear strings of 
pearls and other stones and heavy gold chains. Many women 
have on their feet regular chain armor of gold and silver, 
and they have bells attached to each toe, which ring as they 
walk. In order to make the hair more glossy and silky, they 
oil it ; and then part it in the middle. A large knot is made of 
the hair behind the left ear. As hair decorations they wear 
sweet-smelling flowers and ornaments of gold. 

RELIGION. There are many religions at the present time 
in India, among the most important of which are Hinduism, 
Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jamism, Christianity, 
Parseeism, and Animism. Of these the one which has the great 
following is Hinduism, with over 207,000,000 people. The term 
Brahmanism is frequently used in connection with this religion, 
but there is really no distinction between the two either in their 
religion or social organization. 

HINDUISM. Hinduism is an aggregate of many forms of 
belief and did not spring from the teachings of any one man, 
as did Mohammedanism, Buddhism and Christianity. "The 
oldest document of Indian religion, and indeed of Aryan re- 
ligion in general, is the Rig-Veda, or 'Lore of the Verses,' a 
collection of hymns to various gods which were composed for 
the worship of the Aryan tribes invading India, during the 
earlier centuries of their dwelling in the land * * * * 
Some of the deities thus worshiped are simply forces of nature, 
over whose purely physical character the poets cast only a thin 
veil of allegory and metaphor. Such are Father Heaven, and 
Mother Earth, the Dawn-goddess, the Sun-god, and the "Wind- 
god. "With other deities, new attributes and trains of ideas 
have been connected which tend to obscure their original 
character." 2 

As the years advanced, the number of gods increased, until 
finally out of the great number arose three principal ones, 
Brahma, the god of creation, Vishnu, the god of preservation, 
and Siva, the god of destruction. The worship of these three 
gods and the conception of the caste system form the kernel 
of Hinduism. Besides these three main gods, there are numer- 
ous other lesser ones which the pious Hindu reckons to the 
number of three hundred and thirty millions. 

The Hindus believe in the sanctity of all life and hence the 

1 Dubois & Beauchamp, Vol. I, pp. 343-344. 

2 L. D. Barnett, " Hinduism," p. 4. 

[206] 



animals come in for their share of the worship. To this belief 
is now added the almost universal helief in the incarnation of 
souls in every kind of living tiling'. Among the principal ani- 
mals arc monkeys, hulls, hirds, and snakes. 

It is safe to say that there is not an object on earth which 
the ordinary Hindu is not prepared to worship. 

Nearly all the acts of life have some religious ceremonial 
connected with them; this is especially true in the higher 
castes. 

To those who hold strongly to the religious teachings, there 
is a feeling that some time in their lives they must make a 
special trip to the Biver Ganges. By washing in its sacred 
water, they think that their sins will be carried away, and if 
they can die on its banks, the future life will be one long period 
of bliss for them. 

John L. Stoddard describes a scene which he witnessed 
along the Ganges at Benares. "Engaging a boat, with natives 
to roAv us, we floated slowly down the Ganges. The sights here 
on its northern bank are almost indescribable. Imagine a 
panorama three miles long, which, as your boat glides down 
the current, seems to unroll itself before you. Put up your 
hands like opera-glasses to your eyes and look at any portion 
of it singly, and you might fancy it to be an elaborate theatre- 
curtain ; for the background is a long high cliff, covered with 
turreted walls and strangely pointed domes, ascending tier 
above tier from the broad river to the bright blue sky. 

"Along the river-bank, in one unbroken line, descend broad 
staircases of stone, and on these steps stand, literally, thousands 
of Hindus, praying, conversing, meditating, bathing, or carry- 
ing away in jars the water of the hallowed stream. 

"As early as an hour after sunrise, I found these stairways 
thronged with men, women, and children, clad merely in a 
wisp of cotton, yet mindful only of one thing, besides which 
all else in the universe was for a moment worthless, — their 
bath in the Holy Ganges ; for they believe that its thrice-sacred 
flood will purify their souls, if not their bodies, and wash away 
all taint of sin. 

"I speak reservedly of the effect which bathing here may 
have upon their bodies, for at Benares the Ganges is filthy in 
the extreme. Happily for the reputation of the Hindus this is 
not caused entirely by the blackness of their sins. Other more 
practical causes can be found. Sewers discharge their con- 
tents into the midst of all these bathers. Bushels of faded 
flowers, which have served as offerings in the temples, are cast 
into the river here and float in fetid masses on its sluggish sur- 
face. Moreover, among these rotting and offensive weeds are 
the remains of human bodies which have been partially cre- 
mated on the shore. Add to this the fact that, all day long, 
thousands here cleanse their bodies and their clothing, and one 

[207] 



can faintly comprehend the condition of this water. Yet every 
bather takes up in his hands some of this filthy, mucilaginous 
fluid, and drinks it. Even worse than this, beasts of burden 
carry away into the country gallons of this river-water, which 
finds ready purchasers; for, though the English Government 
provides here a good supply of filtered water, the people of 
Benares prefer to use the unadulterated 'Holy Granges,' and 
come long distances to fill their jars with it and take it home. 
What wonder, then, that there is always cholera at Benares, 
and that this valley of the Ganges is a perfect laboratory of 
infection — a paradise of microbes — a constant source of danger 
to the Western world 1 In almost every instance where cholera 
has ravaged Europe, Asia, or America, its origin has been dis- 
tinctly traced back to a starting point in India, where it first 
appeared among the crowds of filthy, half-starved pilgrims to 
the Ganges. 

' ' Though there are miles of stone steps on this sacred shore, 
open to all comers, they do not at times afford sufficient space 
for the pilgrims, and wooden piers have in addition been built 
out into the stream. Selecting one man on the spot for observa- 
tion, I saw him dip himself completely three or four times ; then 
he took up a little of the water in his hands and drank it ; and, 
finally, pinching his nose between his thumb and forefinger, he 
held his breath as long as possible while mentally repeating the 
name of God. The only part of this performance that I could 
really understand was the necessity of holding his nose ! Most 
of the men, and many of the women here, had their heads 
closely shaved, for they are told that for every hair thus sacri- 
ficed they will secure a million years in Paradise. 

"Conspicuous among these places for ablution was a mud- 
hole at the foot of a steep bank, between two broken flights of 
steps. So filthy and neglected did this spot appear, that I 
could hardly believe the statement that here are burned the 
bodies of all Hindus — rich and poor alike — who have the happi- 
ness of dying at Benares. 'Happiness,' I say; for to expire 
beside the Ganges is considered a sure passport to eternal bliss. 

"After minute inspection of these scenes during several 
hours, we landed at one point to see the so-called 'Well "of 
Purification.' It is a tank, about thirty feet in depth, sup- 
posed to have been dug originally by the Hindu deity, Vishnu, 
and to be, even now, partially filled with his perspiration. 
After inhaling one good whiff from it, I was quite ready to 
believe the statement; for it absolutely reeks with the effluvia 
of rotten flowers and the impurities of dirty millions who bathe 
themselves in the well before they step into the sacred stream 
itself. Yet I saw at least a dozen people drink this loathsome 
liquid. Priests serve it out by the ladle-full in exchange for 
money. A single swallow of that putrid mixture, it is affirmed, 

[208] 



is warranted to drive out every particle of sin from the vilest 
criminal on earth ; and I must sa,y, it appeared to me strong 
enough to do so." 1 

If possible, bodies are burned by the river. Before the 
English rule was felt, if the people were wealthy, enough wood 
was used to consume the corpse, but if poor, the body was half 
burned and then thrown in the river among the bathers. 

In certain parts of India, where the Parsee religion is domi- 
nant, bodies of the dead are consumed by birds. Circular 
buildings of white stone, known as "Towers of Silence" are 
situated in groves of trees. The bodies are brought in by the 
priests and placed on iron gratings open to the sky. Within 
fifteen minutes only the hones are left, and these soon fall to 
a crypt below. 

1 Stoddard, India, pp. 74-S3. 



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